Personal life

The second son of Sarjeant Ash (1754–1820) and Lydia Ash née Smith, Claudius Ash was born in Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green

Bethnal Green is a district of the East End of London, England and part of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, with the far northern parts falling within the London Borough of Hackney. Located northeast of Charing Cross, it was historically an agrarian hamlet in the ancient parish of Stepney,...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, on 2 March 1792. He married Sarah Butler on 11 March 1813 and had eight children, four of whom, along with other members of the Ash family and their descendants, were engaged in dental manufacturing or practised as dental surgeons. Claudius Ash’s family were members of the Catholic Apostolic Church

Catholic Apostolic Church

The Catholic Apostolic Church was a religious movement which originated in England around 1831 and later spread to Germany and the United States. While often referred to as Irvingism, it was neither actually founded nor anticipated by Edward Irving. The Catholic Apostolic Church was organised in...

 (Irvingites). He died in London on 3 November 1854.

Work

Claudius Ash followed his father into the profession of silversmith

Silversmith

A silversmith is a craftsperson who makes objects from silver or gold. The terms 'silversmith' and 'goldsmith' are not synonyms as the techniques, training, history, and guilds are or were largely the same but the end product varies greatly as does the scale of objects created.Silversmithing is the...

ing and goldsmith

Goldsmith

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...

ing in the firm of Ash & Sons, 64 St James’s Street, Westminster. In about 1820 he was asked to apply his craftsmanship to making a set of dentures

Dentures

Dentures are prosthetic devices constructed to replace missing teeth, and which are supported by surrounding soft and hard tissues of the oral cavity. Conventional dentures are removable, however there are many different denture designs, some which rely on bonding or clasping onto teeth or dental...

. Up to this time, most false teeth were made from hippopotamus

Hippopotamus

The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...

 or walrus

Walrus

The walrus is a large flippered marine mammal with a discontinuous circumpolar distribution in the Arctic Ocean and sub-Arctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. The walrus is the only living species in the Odobenidae family and Odobenus genus. It is subdivided into three subspecies: the Atlantic...

 ivory that was prone to discolouring, or from human teeth extracted from dead bodies, including battlefield casualties (thus known as ‘Waterloo teeth’). Ash’s teeth, made of porcelain

Porcelain

Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...

 mounted on gold plates, with gold springs and swivels, were considered superior both aesthetically and functionally and laid the foundation of his new enterprise as Britain’s foremost manufacturer of dentures and dental appliances. Originally based in Broad Street (now Broadwick Street), London, the business expanded rapidly and by the mid-nineteenth century Claudius Ash dentures and dental equipment dominated the European market. Claudius Ash & Sons became an international company, in 1924 merging with de Trey & Company to form the Amalgamated Dental Company; it is now a division of Plandent Limited.

Further reading

• A Catalogue of Artificial Teeth and Dental Materials Manufactured and Sold by Claudius Ash & Sons, 7, 8, & 9, Broad Street, Golden Square, London, 1865, Landkirchen: Pelican Publishing, 2000 (facsimile)
• Claudius Ash Sons & Co Ltd, A Century of Dental Art: A Centenary Memoir, 1820–1921, 1921
• Elisabeth Bennion, Antique Dental Instruments, London: Sotheby’s Publications, 1986
• Maurice David Kaufman Bremner, The Story of Dentistry, Brooklyn: Dental Items of Interest Publishing Company, 1946
• Sydney Garfield, Teeth Teeth Teeth, London: Arlington Books, 1972
• John Woodforde, The Strange Story of False Teeth, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1968

External links

• Ash of Cannock (Ash family history website; currently offline – refer enquiries regarding Ash family history to Russell Ash
  Russell Ash
  Russell Ash was the British author of the Top 10 of Everything series of books, as well as Great Wonders of the World, Incredible Comparisons and many other reference, art and humour titles, most notably his recent series of books on strange-but-true names, Potty, Fartwell & Knob, Busty, Slag and...
  
  http://www.russellash.com)
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry on Claudius Ash by Timothy Blatchford (subscription required for online access)