|
Experimental
Archaeology
Rychard Bancke's Tooth Powder
- UNDER CONSTRUCTION -
RYCHARDE BANCKES
A Boke of the propreties of herbes called an herball.
"Here begynnyth a newe mater, the whiche sheweth and treateth
of ye vertues & proprytes of herbs, the whiche is called an
herbal"
London. Date 25 March 1525 Printed by William Copland for  Richard
Kele, by 1552. (sig. A1r)
"Also
take the timber thereof
[rosemary] and burn it to coals
and make powder thereof
and put it into a linen cloth
and rub thy teeth therewith,
and if there be
any worms therein,
it shall slay them
and keep thy teeth
from all evils."
The beIief that tooth problems
and aches were caused by little worms living in the teeth was a wide-spread
medieval belief, so the cure or preventative for this was a good idea.
I have recreated this powder
to use in my MEDIEVAL BATH
DISPLAY and have included a step by step guide to my approach,
including my expectations and how it really worked out.
The overall verdict? A pretty good item which worked reasonably well.
The
prep:
There were a number of things
to think about before I started.
- Where can I get the ingrediants?
- Drying the ingredients or buying them pre-powdered or using them
fresh?
- Air dry or oven dry
the grown ingredients?
- How much of which ingredients
should I use?
- Will it actually make
any real difference?
- How long will it last?
- Do any of the plants
have benefits associated with them which make them particularly
useful?
 What
you need:
Ingrediants
Woody branches of rosemary
Loose weave linen cloth
Kitchen things
Charcoal-making burner container
Mortar and pestle
Spoon
Matches and a fire for charcoal making
 |
Rosemary
The rosemary was extremely
easy to source, since I grow it in my herb garden. I also had
access to some woody stems from a years-old plant which had died
and left the woody stems.
Since the recipe called for
"rosemary wood" I am assuming they don't mean the leaves,
tips or the soft green wood.
This also meant that I did
not need to dry the wood to burn, since it was absolutely dry.
|
 |
Linen cloth
I used a mid-weight linen cloth which
was commercially bought, but in hindsight, I should have used
a much looser weave.
|
 |
Mortar
and pestle
As with many medieval recipes, a solid
mortar and pestle is needed to grind the ingredients up.
This stone one works very well.
|
Method:
My plan was to use bought linen
and make the charcoal myself, crush it up and assemble it together.
This recipe seems very straightforward.
It was slightly more tricky.
 |
The rosemary was very easy
to source straight from my garden, and this is what the dried
wood looked like. It is thick enough to make charcoal from, however
my plan to just "burn it ad collect the charcoal" turned
out to be a bad idea. My friend Mim, explained the properly made
charcoal has a higher oxygen content and is made by heating the
wood over a flame in an enclosed container which has a little
hole to allow a small amount of smoke to escape.
|
|
Before I had a chance to
mull this over or try it myself, she made some from dried rosemary
wood that she also had in her yard, so a huge thank you to Mim.
I will be trying to make my own in the future, because it's very
interesting and I may need more.
If you're making it yourself,
you'll need a small, metal container with a little hole and a
fire or flame to put it over while it burns inside.
Here's what Mim's charcoal
looks like. At first glance, it looks fairly brittle because the
wood is thin, and should grind down easily, which it did.
|
|
|
 |
Once the grinding was complete,
all that remained was to cut the linen into little squares, spoon
a small amount onto it and give it a test.
The linen held the charcoal
quite well without it seeping through straight away, and at that
point I thought a looser weave might be better for the process.
|
 |
The
original instructions don't say whether the charcoal-and-linen should
be used wet or dry, so I did the first test dry. |
 |
You can see here how exposure
to the moisture of a mouth, the linen fabric gets damp all by
itself.
Eventually, little bits of
charcoal made their way through the fabric and worked like a little
abrasive on the teeth and gums, which, to be honest, the linen
by itself was doing a reasonable job..
|
 The
results are in:
This was where I discovered:
- Charcoal-making is an art.
- The linen needs to have
a very loose weave.
- Powdered charcoal gets everywhere.
I really feel this worked as
far as getting muck off the teeth. The abrasive of the linen cloth
alone worked, but the addition of charcoal also helped.
Considering the number of charcoal-infused toothpastes available
nowadays, it seems that it was an idea medieval people already had.
A recent study via a dental
association has shown that charcoal toothpastes don't whiten teeth
and more than others and after prolonged use, damages the tooth
enamel.
The
audience results:
Being of a scientific mind, I asked re-enactors to try this, the
responses were as follows:
As a general trend, no one
had any objections to the proceedure, taste or aftertaste.
Copyright
© Rosalie Gilbert
All text & photographs within this site are the property of Rosalie
Gilbert unless stated.
Art & artefact images remain the property of the owner.
Images and text may not be copied and used without permission
|
