Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A partial set of dentures used by former British leader Winston Churchill – described as the teeth that saved the world – sold at auction Thursday for 15,200 pounds ($23,723.)

The upper dentures, one of several sets specially made for the wartime prime minister, were crucial for maintaining his distinctively slurred speaking style famous from World War II-era radio broadcasts.

“From childhood, Churchill had a very distinctive natural lisp; he had trouble with his S’s,” said Jane Hughes, who is head of learning at London’s Hunterian Museum, a medical museum run by the Royal College of Surgeons.

“He wanted to maintain (the lisp) because he was already so well known for it,” she said. “The dentures wouldn’t quite connect with the top of the mouth, but that was on purpose.”

The museum displays a duplicate set of Churchill’s dentures, with the caption “the teeth that saved the world.” They are on show in a glass cabinet alongside other famous teeth – including dentures worn by Queen Caroline, the estranged wife of King George IV.

Churchill is acclaimed for his rousing speeches to the British nation during the war, but his dental issues have been less well known. Hughes said the politician had many problems with his teeth as a child and probably lost some of them quite early. He regarded the skill of his dentist, Wilfred Fish, so highly that he nominated him for a knighthood.

The dentures were made by dental technician Derek Cudlipp, who produced three identical sets of teeth around the start of the war, when the leader was about 65. One set is believed be have been buried with him. The set at auction was sold by the son of Cudlipp.

Churchill valued his false teeth so much that he often called Cudlipp to Downing Street to fix them. He even prevented Cudlipp from joining the military, according to his son.

“(My father) made three sets for Churchill because he would often break them,” he told the BBC.

“In a fix of temper he’d bite down on them, and he was renowned for flicking them across the room with his thumb.”

The false teeth were bought by a British collector of Churchill memorabilia at an auction in England at three times the estimated price. Keys Auctioneers said the man previously bought a microphone said to have been used by Churchill to announce the end of the war.

Meanwhile, a British publisher announced it would release a complete digitized archive of papers documenting his life.

Bloomsbury Publishing announced Thursday about 1 million pages of the papers, including everything from childhood school reports to private letters and notes, can be accessed online through libraries and schools starting in 2012.

The vast collection is currently housed in 2,500 boxes in a dedicated archive center in Cambridge, England.

Churchill served as prime minister from 1940 to 1945 and then from 1951 to 1955.

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