Accession No
0559
Brief Description
spectacles, temple, and case, 1820 (c)
Origin
Maker
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1820
Latest Date
1820
Inscription Date
Material
metal (silver); glass; fishskin (shagreen); cloth (velvet)
Dimensions
length 110mm; breadth 30mm; thickness 15mm; case length 127mm; breadth 41mm; thickness 19mm
Special Collection
Robert Whipple collection
Provenance
Purchased from Dempress, Cape Town, South Africa, on 22/07/1927.
Inscription
Description Notes
(?)silver-plate frame. Oval convex lenses, ‘C’-bridge. Side pieces with loop ends. Slip case with hinged, clip fastening lid. Shagreen covered with silver mounts. Silver name plate on top of lid. (Case and mounts coming apart; 7-2-2000).
Condition: good/fair (box: fair); complete.
References
Events
Description
Spectacles
Usually consisting of a pair of lenses held in a frame, spectacles may have originated in the ancient civilizations of China and the Mediterranean, but early forms were crude. It was only in the 18th century that the grinding of lenses became sufficiently advanced to make then really effective for correcting sight defects. In order to correct for near sightedness, the lenses must be concave, which diverges the rays of light (angles them apart), and for long sightedness they must be convex, to angle the rays of light together.
Spectacles are not solely used for defective eyesight; the Inuit and the Yupik use wooden spectacles with very small slits in them to reduce the glare from snow and ice.
FM:42711
Images (Click to view full size):
