Accession Number

1986.008.1122

Creation Date

circa 1700

Description

Absent terminal end of one handle.

Exhibition Label

These 14.5 cm long iron forceps recovered from the 1700 slave ship Henrietta Marie were designed to extract human teeth. They worked much like pliers, with the handles being grasped and squeezed to tighten the two “beaks” around the neck of a tooth. Once there was a good grip, the tooth was wriggled and pulled. In the late-seventeenth century, dentistry was crude, and pulling teeth was often the answer to many dental afflictions. Considering that bad teeth know no boundaries, these dental forceps were likely used to treat both the Henrietta Marie’s African captives and its European crew.