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Tag Archives: Glasses

The View From Where You Sit: Personal Magnification Devices

Microscope: 3 convex lenses in the inner cylinder, fitting into shagreen (snakeskin)- covered tube, with gilt-bronze finial cap and tripod stand, optics by Passemant, ingénieur du roi, France, c. 1750 photo: metmuseum.org

by Melody Amsel-Arieli   Simple magnification devices, like water-filled spheres and rock crystal (quartz) “burning glasses” were known around the Mediterranean and across the Middle East in ancient times. These […]

Seeing is Believing: Extravagant 1950s & '60s Eyewear

Seeing is Believing: Extravagant 1950s & '60s Eyewear

By Donald-Brian Johnson Photos by Leslie Piña Writer Dorothy Parker once declared that “men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses.” Judging by what, for many years, constituted eyewear […]