Teeth for two...

From ABC News

Churchill's false teeth go on sale

Posted 4 hours 31 minutes ago

A set of dentures made for Britain's war-time prime minister Winston Churchill have gone under the hammer in Britain.

Auctioneers say they expect the item to fetch up to 5,000 pounds ($8,600) for "the teeth that saved the world".

The false teeth were specially designed to preserve Mr Churchill's natural lisp which can be heard on the morale-boosting radio broadcasts he made to the nation during World War II.

Mr Churchill also used them to vent his frustration when the 1939 to 1945 conflict was not going well by dramatically flicking them out of his mouth, according to Nigel Cudlipp, whose father made the dentures and who is now selling them.

"My father recounted many stories of Churchill putting his thumb behind the front of the teeth and just flicking them," Mr Cudlipp said.

"My father used to say he could tell how well the war effort was going by how far they went across the room and whether they hit the opposite wall.

"Churchill was not a man who was renowned for his patience."

It is thought that only four sets of the teeth were made. One is thought to have gone to the grave with him, another is in a London museum and a third was melted down.

- AFP