Harold Hodges and His Opal Teeth

Photo of a handmade upper set of false teeth. The front 6 teeth are different types of opal, with one tooth being an opal within an opal. The rest of the teeth are standard white tooth color. The top of the dentures is covered in some sort of brownish putty which was used to hang the teeth up on a pub wall.

I come across all sorts of wonderful (and sometimes weird!) jeweled things on my tiara searches and I decided that some of them were just too good not to share. Not sure how often I'll be making these posts but we're getting started today with one of the wildest jewelry-related things I've seen on the web - false teeth made from OPALS.

Harold Hodges, the owner of the opal teeth, was quite the character! In the 1950s he ended up in Lightning Ridge, a small town in the Australian outback known for its black opal mines. Harold's intentions were to strike it rich as an opal miner but he ended up having to supplement his income with various other gigs. He became the town's butcher and also the bookmaker. He created a motel made out of streetcars he sourced from Melbourne and Sydney and had brought to Lightning Ridge. He was even key in getting the Wales Bank to open a branch in Lightning Ridge by giving almost 200 schoolchildren 20 cents each in order to open an account.

What he seems to be most well-known for, though, is his opal dentures. He lost his original front plate of false teeth so had a friend who was also a dentist create a new set using opals provided by Harold. He purposely choose opals in a variety of colors and patterns. Why opal teeth? According to Harold himself, "I needed a new set, so I got ‘em made from opal, just for the hell of it. Chomped marvellously well, too." When his new teeth arrived, he "...moistened them in his pint of beer before popping them into his mouth." - source

Color photograph of Harold Hodges smiling enough that his opal dentures can be seen.

source

Not surprisingly, Harold and his teeth became a tourist attraction but this notoriety weighed on him and, after wearing them for a decade, he gave the dentures to the local pub where they were encased in a wall so tourists could see the teeth without him being involved. After he passed away in the early 1980s, his wife reclaimed the teeth as a momento. When she passed away, the teeth were given to family friends who eventually donated them to the Australian Opal Centre.

There's a really cool 13 minute video discussing the teeth. A member of the Australian Opal Centre talks about the teeth and shares some interesting lore about them.

This story is just so banana crackers and awesome in its oddity. I hope you all enjoyed it as much as I did!

image of a white rabbit popping out of his rabbit hole, looking around, and going back in. His rabbit hole is surrounded by grass and some carrots in the ground.

Australian Opal Centre
Harold Hodges' Opal Teeth - In addition to a great write up on the teeth, this website has all sorts of information on opals including the different types, patterns, colors, info about each Australian opal field and other historical and cultural information.
Opals and Teeth - this blog post from The Practical Gemologist was my introduction to the opal teeth.
Photo of the last tram on the site of the Tram-O-Tel Motel

When I first started using Zonelets I had Disqus set up as a commenting system but it looked obnoxiously ugly and I ditched it. Some people are happy to not have blog interaction but I'd love to hear from you if you have any thoughts you want to share! You can respond through my guestbook or email. If you found this link on Discord or the 32-Bit Cafe Discourse, you can message me there or leave a message on my Neocities profile page.