Details

The Town Tooth Drawer

HC.J.16.X.20

William (1781-1858) DAVISON (Artist), W. Davison (Publisher)

Woodcut probably by William Davison (1781-1858) inspired by The London Dentist, after Dighton (c.1784). Printed and published by W. Davison, Alnwick. The scene is of the patient's drawing-room, through the window of which is clearly visible the lantern tower of the Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas, Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The operator, wearing a powered wig, is applying a key instrument to extract a maxillary central incisor tooth for a fashionably attired lady. Her maid surveys the scene with concern, the cat arches her back in defense of the pain inflicted upon her mistress, and the operator's assistant smiles at the viewer while holding a case of instruments. Black assistants were often employed by practitioners of the healing arts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries because they were seen to add impressiveness to an establishment. It is a companion to The Country Tooth Drawer, HC.J.16.X.21

Nineteenth century, early