Accession No
0736
Brief Description
spectacles, temple, in case, 1780-1830
Origin
Maker
Class
optical
Earliest Date
1780
Latest Date
1830
Inscription Date
Material
metal (steel); glass; wood; fishskin (shagreen); cloth
Dimensions
length 133mm; breadth 48mm; thickness 16mm
Special Collection
Robert Whipple collection
Provenance
Purchased from F.R. Middlewick, Torquay, England, on 29/09/1933.
Inscription
‘1/-’ (in pencil inside lid)
Description Notes
Steel frames; round convex lenses. Hinged double side pieces with ring ends. C-bridge; shagreen covered wooden slip case with hinged lid.
Condition: fair (rusty); 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:42741
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