Conjoint RANZCO / RVEEH Museum

Spectacles with spring bridge

Bridge and rims are one continuos piece of Copper with the two ends tied with wire loops.  Nasal area padded with thread wound around rim of frame.
Original wooden case. Rim of frame marked THOMAS SCHWARTZ, WOHNHAFFT IN FURTH 1749.  R & L +3.75 D.

Benjamin Franklin bifocals

Stirling silver frames. Arms joined to fold behind head.  Individual distance and reading lenses.
R & L + 2.0D. with add +3.0D.
Frame hallmarked London 1804

Sterling silver distance glasses

Arms jointed to fold behind head.  R & L -4.0D.  Hallmarked London 1804.

Wire framed distance glasses

Steel frame with side bars.  R & L -6.0 C 1830.

Metal pince-nez

Sprung bridge nose pieces.  Bought in local hardware store in Hobart.  C1890 Worn by various member os family until 1964.  R & L +2.50 D.

Sunglasses with lateral visors

Steel wire frame with jointed side bars.  Flat plano lenses. C 1860.

Goggles with wire mesh side pieces
Steel frames and arms.  Plano lenses. C 1880.

Prismatic reading glasses

For use when lying recumbent.  1935 onwards.
Case marked "LUNETTE DE LIT". MADE IN FRANCE.

The Spectacle Story

Early Times  | The Lenses  | The Frames | Spectacles and Art

Early Times

9th Century BC: Possible use of some form of magnification by engravers producing fine hieroglyphics on stone.

1st Century AD: The Roman Emperor Nero is said to have used an emerald to view events in the Colosseum. It is not known whether he used the stone as a sun glass or if he was myopic and the stone had a concave surface.

The Chinese used spectacles made from tea stone, not for the optical effect but they believed that there was a force in the stone which helped visually defective people. 

700 AD:  A casual reference to the use of a magnifier was made by 8t. Boniface.

Middle Ages:  "Reading stone" developed by the monks. A segment of a polished sphere of rock crystal or beryllus (emerald or beryl) was laid flat on the parchment to enlarge the print.  Later the lens was held by a handle.

1280:  Two lenses were combined together, one for each eye. The lenses were surrounded by a frame of wood or horn equipped with handles which were fixed together with a nail or rivet, the so called "riveted spectacles".

The Lenses

1300:  Original lenses of rock crystal or beryl were replaced by glass produced by the glass industry in Venice.

Circa 1450:  Concave lenses were developed.

16th Century:  Production of lenses was only allowed in special shops licenced by edict of the various city councils. Later these edicts became less effective and lenses of inferior quality were produced elsewhere e.g. in prisons or work houses. These poor quality spectacles were sold by itinerant peddlers.

1611:  Kepler developed a meniscus form of lens and also described prisms which were not used clinically until about 1860 by von Graefe and also Donders.

1775:  Benjamin Franklin invents bifocals.

• William Wollaston in 1805 introduced the periscopic lens to overcome astigmatism produced by oblique pencils of light.
• Sir George Airey in 1827 developed the astigmatic lens.
• Further developments by Gullstrand (1905) with the aspheric lens and also work by Tscheming (1908) overcame the problems of peripheral distortion.
• Crown glass manufactured by Zeiss from 1885 onwards gave lens glass increased clarity and uniformity of structure.
• Gradual modifications during this century have been directed to removing further imperfections.

The Frames

The original rivetted spectacles, which were often pressed together to grip the nose, were cumbersome and difficult to use but they were used until the fifteenth century when' they were replaced by those with a fixed arched bridge.
These were usually made in one piece. The frame was often made of leather as this helped to grip the nose.
Bridges made of horn were sometimes slit to make them more flexible.

However, they still usually had to be held by hand but sometimes were fixed to a headband or cap.

Threads were sometimes attached to eyelets on the frame and tied behind the head or attached to weights hanging down over the ears.

17th Century:  A technique was developed to enable a round wire to be pressed flat and a groove to be placed in one side thereby producing a frame to hold the lens.

Circa 1720:  Side bars or arms were fitted. These were either made to press on the temples or were longer straight arms which rested on the fashionable wigs of the day.

When the wearing of wigs ceased, the arms were designed to fit behind the ears or jointed to fold behind the head.

Circa 1850:  Modern spectacle arms with curved ear pieces were developed.

Spectacles and Art

Following the spread of the use of spectacles for reading during the 14th century, the only people to use them were those who were educated and literate. Portraits of famous people of the time were therefore often painted with a pair of spectacles as they became to be seen as a mark of wisdom.

In addition, painters of that era, who were portraying religious topics, such as the birth of Jesus or episodes in his early life, often showed individuals in the picture with a pair of spectacles to show their status and wisdom. Hence the wise men at the Crib are sometimes shown wearing or holding a pair of spectacles. Paintings of the circumcision of the infant Jesus may show one of the group of men wearing spectacles and reading from a book.

All material illustrated is part of the Conjoint Museum Collection.