Dear Lee,

Years ago we visited a small out-of-town shop where the dealer recognized us. “I have something that you don’t have in your collections and you should buy it to be sure it’s preserved,” she told us. She handed us a set of false teeth and an old letter. The letter explained that the dentures had been used by a 19th-century Scotland Yard detective and were “made of ivory teeth and swaged gold.” (“Swaged” means the gold was shaped by a dentist with a hammer and die.)

The set’s lower and upper gold plates were held together by springs. The set appeared to be very uncomfortable but well-made. We bought it for under $50 and gave it to a dentist friend who collected old dental items. The false teeth became the star of his collection. Few of his friends and fellow dentists had ever seen a set like it.

After we bought the teeth, we did some research and learned more about dental tools, George Washington’s wooden teeth, Civil War sets made from teeth taken from dead bodies, and even more strange dental facts. So when two sets of Winston Churchill’s gold dentures sold in England late last year, we were very interested and not surprised that one set sold for $23,220 at one auction and a second set for $30,770 at another. Of course, the prices were high mostly because the teeth had belonged to Churchill. The sets were consigned by relatives of the experts who made them.

Why should you care? Because this proves that almost everything is collectible. Both the detective’s teeth and Churchill’s are of historic interest. “Our” detective’s gold teeth, along with the rest of our friend’s collection, are now on display at a medical museum. The teeth are a piece of history that could have been lost without a collector who knew the value of a minor—almost ignored—piece of our past.