Watt
10sparks

Dentures and the Battle of Waterloo

In the nineteenth century, some dentures were made with real human teeth. After the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, teeth were collected from dead soldiers on the battlefield and sold for use in dentures, giving rise to the name “Waterloo teeth.” But not all dentures of the period came from those killed in that battle; human teeth came from other sources too. The illustration is AI-generated and is not an image of a museum object.

синтетична редакційна ілюстрація антикварного протеза на музейній тканині; створено OpenAI image generation 12 жовтня 2026 року. Prompt: “Editorial historical illustration about nineteenth-century dentures made with human teeth recovered after battles, inspired by documented Waterloo teeth. Show an antique ivory-colored denture with a few natural-looking teeth on a museum display cloth beside a small archival-style label with no readable text. No blood, no human remains, no claim this is a specific artifact. Restrained museum illustration, warm neutral palette, clearly illustrative, no text.” Це не фотографія і не зображення конкретного музейного артефакту.

синтетична редакційна ілюстрація антикварного протеза на музейній тканині; створено OpenAI image generation 12 жовтня 2026 року. Prompt: “Editorial historical illustration about nineteenth-century dentures made with human teeth recovered after battles, inspired by documented Waterloo teeth. Show an antique ivory-colored denture with a few natural-looking teeth on a museum display cloth beside a small archival-style label with no readable text. No blood, no human remains, no claim this is a specific artifact. Restrained museum illustration, warm neutral palette, clearly illustrative, no text.” Це не фотографія і не зображення конкретного музейного артефакту.