In my mind, I can still see the image of my aunt in the black and white Kodak photo from about the 1950s:
Her hair nicely coiffed, a pair of cat eyeglasses, pointed at the end with clear rhinestones (asI recall), adorning her face. She was probably in her 20s then, a young woman with fun and pleasure on her mind, likely wearing the glasses for show.
I got to thinking about her cat eyeglasses because vintage eyeglasses keep turning up at the auctions I attend. Recently, I came across two pairs of metal-frame glasses still in their velvety cases. Since they were there together, I assumed they came from the same household.
Those glasses also got me to wondering about who buys vintage eyeglasses and why. I always assumed that most were prescription glasses, so why would you want someone else’s prescription? Buy them for the frame, remove the lenses and replace them with your own?
I sought the answer by Googling. One site mentioned that vintage frames offer a unique style that no one else can copy. Another site talked about buying them to sell the gold and silver in the frames, or to build a collection. Here’s a story that includes tips on buying and how to use them. The site antiquespectacles.com offered insights on wearing and preserving antique glasses.
The frames at the auction house were simple compared to some of the ornate antiques I found on the web. From fancy lorgnettes to Ray Ban Aviators (first introduced in 1937 and embraced by the public after Gen. Douglas MacArthur sported them in World War II) to the cat eyeglasses and beyond.
I also came across some interesting spectacles history from the Museum of Vision in San Francisco:
Spectacles were believed to have been invented in the 13th century (around 1286-1289, in Pisa, Italy), worn mostly by monks who held them to their eyes.
Benjamin Franklin invented the bifocals in 1784.
People had to try on different types of glasses in the 1800s because prescriptions were not made specifically for one person.
Glasses were sold by traveling salesmen, jewelers and in hardware stores.
Women wore hand-held spectacles called lorgnettes so they wouldn’t have to be seen wearing glasses (I’ve seen these in old movies, worn by wealthy women when they wanted to look at something very closely. Seemed to be more jewelry than glasses. Never knew what they were called). Men – including George Washington and Napoleon – wore scissor spectacles.
The pince nez took over in the 19th century, finding its way to the United States in the 1850s after being developed in France. The words are French for “pinched nose.” David Suchet, playing Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in the Masterpiece Theater series, thinks nothing of deftly removing his from his coat pocket to study a clue. Actor Lawrence Fishburne’s Morpheus made his tinted pince nez a standout in the Matrix movies. I was never sure how to pronounce the words “pince nez,” so I Googled the pronounciation and found that it varied from this to this. (Both Suchet and Fishburne are in photo above.)
Teddy Roosevelt made wearing spectacles popular during his time.
Sunglasses began their reign in the 1930s, while the availability of colored plastics made glasses even more inviting by the 1940s.
Then there were the cat eyeglasses for women and gold wire frames for men.
The glasses from the auction looked to be Windsor style riding temple spectacles, first made in 1885 by American Optical Co. The handles curved around the ear for security for riding a horse or running. They apparently were popular until the 1920s when cars began to replace horses.
As I searched for antique eyeglasses, one name and business kept coming up: Ed Welch, an antiques dealer and owner of eyeglasseswarehouse.com out of Maine. He’s apparently “the” expert on vintage spectacles. According to the site, it has vintage glasses from 1550 to 1985, will travel just about anywhere to buy glasses made from 1400 to 1727, and supplies authentic frames for films, stage and re-enactments. It noted that antique frames made before 1700 – even those in not-so-good condition – may be of interest to museums and collectors.
So, if you’re lucky enough to come across a pair of real early ones, you’ve got a winner.
