Love, love me tooth...

A tooth belonging to former Beatle John Lennon is up for auction at the Omega auction rooms in Stockport in November.  Lot no. 233 is a tooth with a sworn affidavit of authenticity by house-keeper Dot Jarlett, who was given it as a souvenir by Lennon.

A Beatle's tooth. Photo from Omegaauctions.co.uk.

Official documentation doesn't appear to give any information about this tooth though, so I thought I would.  It seems to be a third molar - a wisdom tooth - probably an upper one.  It's hard to tell if it's from the right or left side of the mouth though.  There's also a noticeable cavity, which is probably the reason the tooth was removed back in the 1960s.

However, the cavity is not as substantial as it first appears.  The difference in colour of the tooth enamel from the top of the tooth (off white/yellowish) and the lower part of the 'cavity' (white) is quite substantial.  I'd guess that a small amount of enamel broke off at some point in the last few years.  Perhaps that might surface at auction one day too.

The guide price for this item is an astonishing £10,000 to £20,000.  Whilst it might be unique, it does seem like a lot to pay for something that probably caused its owner a great deal of pain and was given away at the first opportunity.  It probably didn't even inspire him to write songs - not a single Beatles song contains the word 'tooth'!