The Tooth Ache – Monkeys at the Dentist, 1828

A wonderfully eccentric antique lithograph depicting a group of monkeys taking on human roles in a dentist’s surgery. The suffering patient sits clutching his swollen cheek while the monkey dentist prepares his instruments and an attentive assistant peers over his shoulder. Shelves of bottles, jars, anatomical specimens and a small skeleton complete the richly detailed interior.

This type of humorous animal scene is known as a singerie—a satirical tradition in which monkeys imitate human behaviour. Beneath the comedy, the print offers an amusing caricature of early 19th-century dentistry, when tooth extraction was often the only available treatment.

The composition is after a painting by English animal and genre artist Edmund Bristow (1787–1876), who was particularly admired for his expressive depictions of monkeys. It was drawn on stone by the distinguished Belgian-born lithographer Louis Haghe (1806–1885) and printed by Charles Hullmandel, one of the leading figures in the development of British lithography.

Published in London by T. Flint and in Paris by Rittner on 1 February 1828. The inscription records that Bristow’s original painting belonged to W. A. West of the 1st Regiment of Life Guards.

Title: The Tooth Ache
Artist: After Edmund Bristow
Lithographer: Louis Haghe
Printer: Charles Hullmandel
Date: 1 February 1828
Medium: Original antique lithograph
Published: London and Paris, by T. Flint and Rittner

Dimensions: 30.5 x 35.5 cm

The print is also represented in the Wellcome Collection, which holds both coloured and uncoloured impressions.