THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF EYEGLASSES

By Bruce Shawkey 

Found this interesting article on eyeglasses in a 1954 issue of Europa Star magazine. It was customary back in the day to take your glasses to your local jeweler for repair.  Optical dispensaries only made eyeglasses but rarely repaired them.

ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF EYEGLASSES

In the course of centuries, spectacles have become a fashion accessory, because feminine wearers have been clever enough to transform this utilitarian object into a means of adornment. 

Only very few people know that spectacles have been around since the 13th century at a time in which the clergy gave very strong impulses to intellectual and cultural activity as well as to scientific research. As a matter of fact, spectacles were invented by a monk, the Englishman Roger Bacon. In the year 1267 he discovered the so-called "reading glass" which was made from beryl, a light green semi-precious stone which magnified manuscript letters. The first "reading glass" was rarely used by women in those remote days, as only a few of them were able to read. At that time it was the privilege of the wealthy nobility to own a sight-aid. The cost of a reading glass was very high, while its manufacture was a lengthy process. 

Later another glass was added to this single reading glass and both were joined by means of a bridge. This development gave birth to spectacles, which could be held before the eyes with a handle, as well as to the pincenez, the use of which was considered more elegant. During the 14th and 13th centuries Venician eyeglasses, remarkably polished, won a high reputation throughout Europe. The craft of spectacle makers was also much respected in Germany. However, the use of spectacles was exclusively the privilege of men. In the meantime, it had become possible to fix them behind the ears, so that they could he worn constantly.

Frames of gold and silver, skillfully worked by hand and set with precious stones, were used as mountings for the glasses. Spectacles grew in luxury and elegance, especially under the baroque influence. At that time, wealthy noblemen, to display their riches, wore frames adorned with precious stones and fitted with common window glass, only because they took a vain pride in this luxury. 

After the invention of printing women began also to wear spectacles which greatly facilitated their reading. At social gatherings it was not considered a lack of manners for a woman of fashion to fix her interlocutor through her pincenez. An elegant lady was seldom seen, in the a 17th and 18th  centuries, without this familiar accessory. It was really an attractive sight to follow the graceful movements of a white, delicate woman's hand emerging from a rustle of costly lace and holding a gem-set lorgnette. Many women fitted their richly decorated fan with a lorgnette through which they could observe, without being seen themselves, what was going on around them. 

Today the same little game takes place on the beaches of the world wherever bathing beauties can observe others through special tinted glasses which are impenetrable to every outside glance. After a period of glory in the the 18th century, spectacles went back to their original, utilitarian use and lost all their precious adornments.

Even at the beginning of our century, spectacles were worn only in cases of necessity and considered as disfiguring even to the most beautiful face. It seems that the two last decades of our century have completed the fashion circle. Spectacles are once more, exactly as they were two or three hundred years ago, elegant accessories for smart women and can match up to even the most richly designed gown. As a woman of fashion possesses three or four watches to harmonize with her morning or sports dress, her afternoon, cocktail or ball gown, she strives now to acquire several pairs of glasses, each of which is especially designed for certain hours of her day's or night's program of elegance.