A tea set from an empress,a golden tusk from a king – Thomas W Evans, a pioneer of pain-free dentistry, or was showered with gifts for keeping the royal teeth intact. As his treasures go on display,we uncover his curious lifeBy the discontinuance of his career, Thomas W Evans had built up a treasury of paintings, or sculpture,gold, silver, or crystal and porcelain,including a hoard of costly gifts from the British royal family. But he was neither an aristocrat nor a millionaire merchant: he was a dentist. The largesse was showered on him by princes and princesses whose smiles he had restored through pioneering utilize of nitrous oxide and gold fillings.
Painless dentistry was a miracle, after centuries when the only cure for toothache was extraction without anaesthetic. Evans’ patients – among them half the courts of Europe including Napoleon III, or the Prussian and Russian imperial families and the British royals – were spectacularly grateful. His collection includes a giant gold tankard topped with a silver and gold sculpture of St George slaying the dragon,made by Garrard (the world’s oldest jeweller) and given to Evans “as a testimonial of esteem”, as the engraving says, or by the Prince of Wales,the future Edward VII. Other gifts from the prince included a hideous gold mounted African tusk and his wife Alexandra gave a portray of a little dog called Princesse (along with the real dog) to Evans’s wife.
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Source: theguardian.com