eye-glass, n.
...
3. b) In mod. use, a lens of glass or crystal for assisting defective sight. Double eye-glass (pair of) eyeglasses: two such lenses mounted side by side so as to assist the sight of both eyes; the name by useage is restricted to a pair of lenses to be held in the hand or kept in position by a spring on the nose; those which are secured by pieces of metal placed over the ears being called spectacles.
1704 - I. Newton Opticks I. I. 76 "A pretty good Perspective...made with a concave Eye-Glass..."
1768 - T. Harmer in Philos. Trans. 1767 (Royal Soc.) 57, 283 "I have often found, by the help of an eye-glass, that I... passed over great multitudes of eggs."
spectacles, n.
...
6. a) A device for assisting defective sight, or for protecting the eyes from dust, light, etc., consisting of two glass lenses set in a frame which is supported on the nose, and kept in place by side-pieces passing over the ears. Usually in pl.
b) in phr. a pair of spectacles
1726 - SWIFT Gulliver I. I. ii 46 "A pair of spectacles which I sometimes use for the weakness of mine eyes."
1728 - H. Pemberton View Sir I. Newton's Philos. 383 "Hence may be understood why spectacles made with convex glasses help the sight in old age..."
Below is a Google Ngram graph for the words 'spectacles' and 'eyeglasses' over the broad time period of 1700 - 1800. Notably it is around 1750 that the word 'spectacles' begins a steeper ascent into more common usage in the literature of the time, accordingly to the 5.2 million books which have been digitalized by Google and are referenced in the creation of an Ngram graph. It is worth noting however the fractions of a percentage in which the graph indicates - a strong demonstration of how infrequently the words are used in the century. The word 'eyeglasses' maintains the same low level indicated on the graph in the time periods both immediately preceding and succeeding the eighteenth century - proof that it was perhaps a word more in use verbally than on the page.
Introduction
"The evolution of spectacles can be said to have lain dormant for 500 years until the eighteenth century made some slight progress in craftsmanship and awakened the idea that frame fitting made a difference to the optical results" (Thompson, 1952?)
"Great advances were made in the design of spectacles in the eighteenth century, especially in the latter half" (Law, 1978)
(source: http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/college/museyeum/online_exhibitions/spectacles/eighteen.cfm)
"Even spectacles, permanently useful as they are, have been subjected to the caprice of fashion..." [ www.larsdatter.com ] is an entry in the Annals of Philadelphia from circa 1825 which demonstrates the prolificacy of the wearing of eyeglasses across the Atlantic in the USA. When considered alongside the assertion made by the curator of www.college-optometrists.org that the major design innovation of adding sides or 'arms' to spectacles, and thereby contributing to their increased prevalence took place roughly in the late 1720s, we are given a very clear century span in which to consider the presence and development of spectacles and eyeglasses as both medically important artefacts, and also culturally representative items.
The sudden explosion of affordable and available forms of print - e.g. newspapers, pamphlets etc - in the eighteenth century is one possible reason for the similar coming about of a thriving and competitive optically corrective industry, albeit one with no guilds. The competition for custom really began in earnest in the 1750s, after Benjamin Martin's advertisements for his new design frustrated James Ayscough, a rival producer of spectacles. The two engaged in very public display of, bluntly put, one-upmanship, in the form of the placing of advertisements.
There is very little by way of literary reference to spectacles or eyeglasses - I have found more evidence of their presence in daily life in the form of paintings, prints, (of which respectively a Reynolds and a Hogarth are presented below) advertisements and mentions in newspapers or letters than via any published work. Whether this is because they did not yet feature in a way which lent itself to the type of observation or characterization typical of (broadly speaking) the literature of the era - a perspective challenged by a description in the Tatler from between 1709/11, again explored below - or because they were not at that time as common an object as they are today and therefore not as widespread in domestic and social life it is not possible to tell, however it is safe to say that aspects of both of these perspectives offer an element of understanding as to the spectacles' scarcity of appearance in eighteenth century literature.
Spectacles were not (depending on the quality and materials) vastly expensive by general standards, but neither were they easily affordable for a lot of people - their target market would have been literature men and women who had the finances to invest in such an item, and also the time in which to make use of it - i.e. to sit and read. These characteristics of living do not suggest a working person - perhaps owning a pair of spectacles might have just about been the preserve of a skilled tradesman whose work involved delicate or accurate craftsmanship, if they could be afforded, but weak eyes could be enough to put a poor labourer out of work. Samuel Johnson, author of the Dictionary of The English Language was known as "Blinking Sam" due to the weakness of his eyes, shown in a 1775 painting by Joshua Reynolds but he never wore spectacles. Despite never seeking a solution to his sight issues, he paid for cataract surgery for a friend in his later years, which unfortunately failed. Eye surgery was costly, and by no means an art. It was attempted for many different conditions, on occasion without anesthetic, whilst a patient would be held down by an optician's assistant. Unpleasant, and often damaging, many people often went without. Those who were well-off and lucky enough, could invest in a pair of spectacles to ward off the specter of botched eye surgery.
Design
Diaconoff's 'Through the Reading Glass: Women, Books and Sex in the French Enlightenment' gives an interesting nod to the earliest form of eyeglass -
"As we know from historians who have traced the invention and evolution of optical
devices, the reading glass was both a social and cultural object in eighteenth century
Europe... In their earliest form, besicles, as they were known, were composed of two
convex lenses with a rivet pivot. Like the reading glass, they could be held by hand...
It was not until the eighteenth century that a pair of temples was fastened to eyeglass
frames" (Diaconoff 18.)
A useful cultural comment as to the development of eyeglasses and spectacles in society up until the eighteenth century reads "over time, the reading stone evolved into a reading glass, so that by the time of the eighteenth century they were an object of beauty as well as utility" (Diaconoff 18). Although Diaconoff's book is concerned with aspects of the eighteenth century on the continent, it is useful to note that England was very much keeping up with the trends and styles of mainland Europe in this respect.
There were various types of spectacles - clear glass, tinted glass, double folding temples (designed by Edward Scarlett, another early producer of optical aids) four lens, sliding temple, and turn-pin temple. The word 'temple' refers to what in modern term is referred to as the 'arm' of the spectacle. It was in the addition of 'temples' that spectacle design really moved forward - no more did users have to hold the eye-glass to their eyes whilst reading or observing, they could now wear spectacles full time and have both hands free to turn the pages of their book, write letters, study, sew, play an instrument, paint, observe debate, and so on and so forth with the many activities which might fill the days of the class of person who in eighteenth century England would be most likely to own spectacles. Below is an image of a late eighteenth century pair of four lens spectacles - a practical use which was not necessitated by poor eyesight, but the need for safety. Horsemen or carriage-drivers would be lucky to own such a pair as these, considering that their workplace was open air, and would often be in headwinds. The spectacles below were considered to provide protection for the eye both in the screen provided by the 'wraparound' nature of the lenses, and also in the tinted colour of the glass - considered to negate harsher glares of light.
http://www.eyeglasseswarehouse.com/pages/2093-42.html
Martin's Margins are one of the most well known (if rare) legacies of the eighteenth century's progress in the field of visual aids (the term was not used in the period of the glasses' production, an should be considered a collector's term.) Benjamin Martin was a lexicographer and maker of scientific instruments who operated from Fleet Street beginning in 1740. He created a folding temple type of spectacle with a wide frame (hence the nickname) which due to the thickness of the lens he used allowed less light into the eye - something he viewed as an improvement on other designs of spectacles which did not take the amount of light into account. The technical term for the type of lens Martin used is a 'reduced aperture lens'. He used ox horn inserts between the lens and the frame to create the correct aperture, and this is what gave the design such a recognizable appearance.
US political heavyweight Benjamin Franklin is credited with the invention of the bifocal lens spectacle in 1784. This is taken by most to be a slight exaggeration, he himself not being an optometrist or in any way trained in the trade, however there is evidence surrounding the date of their appearance which locates his hand nearby. He was on a diplomatic mission to France which lasted 1777 until 1785, and there is record of his ordering a product from an English spectacle maker named Sykes then living in Paris, costing 18F, which was a significantly higher expense than the general price for eyewear in Paris at the time. Sykes had to write to Franklin explaining that his order was taking so long due to the fact that the lenses had broken three times in cutting, which indicates an uncommon mode of construction or design. A letter dating from August 1784 from Franklin to a friend describes the politician as "happy in the invention of double spectacles, which serving for distant objects as well as near ones, make my eyes as useful to me as they ever were." Even if Franklin's credit is debated by some, it is appropriate to suggest that bifocals were at this time still a bespoke option requiring input from the wearer, and also the idea that Franklin introduced bifocals to America.
(www.college-optometrists.org)
http://www.pinterest.com/pin/178173728981397857/
Spectacles/Eyeglasses in Public & Fashion
The advertising battle surrounding the innovation, production, and sale of spectacles in the eighteenth century took place in publications circulated to a mass readership, mostly in the sudden abundance of newspapers - the later half of 1756 saw Martin and Ayscough compete in a very public series of advertisements, circulated in pamphlets and periodicals, behaviour which demonstrates the level of competition in the public eye over any perceived monopoly on the industry. The following image is of a page from the 'Gazetteer & Daily London Advertiser' from Thursday 4th November 1756, featuring one of Ayscough's advertisements for his own products (green highlight indicates specific paragraph);
Below is an advertisement for Ayscough's self-styled "original shop" which was located in London between 1740 and 1759 where he sold spectacles and also his highly noted microscopes. Ayscough sold both clear and green/blue tinted lenses, but professed he felt that the tinted lenses were superior - believing them to take "off the glaring Light from the Paper" and render "every Object so easy and pleasant, that the tenderest Eye, may thro' it view anything intently, and without Pain." Roughly around the year 1752 he introduced a style of spectacle which had a double-hinged sidepiece which proved to be popular and considered new by his customers, however he was not by any means the first to use tinted glass in eyeglasses. An example from almost one hundred years prior to Ayscough's innovations and Martin's Margin's comes from the diarist Samuel Pepys, who on 24 December 1666 remarks "I this evening did buy me a pair of green spectacles, to see if they will help my eyes or no" (Pepys 706). His use of the word 'spectacles' indicates that the lexicon surrounding the optical field was very fluid - this word was being used again almost one hundred years before the eighteenth century's progressions gave the field of ocular improvement a boost in terms of popularity and prolificacy.
The below is a self portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds, one of the founders of and also the first president of The Royal Society, and also one of the most prolific and influential painters of the eighteenth century. Interestingly Reynolds was depicted (in this self portraits as well as works of others) with either his spectacles or his ear trumpet, used to aid partial deafness. He was a proponent of the 'Grand Style' of painting which aimed for an idealization of the imperfect through the use of visual metaphors such as pastoral or city backgrounds, objects present alongside the subject and dress in order to indicate noble qualities and an elite character - the fact that he allowed his own artificial hearing and seeing aids to be included in representations of himself implies that their publicly acknowledged presence on a body did not indicate frailty or weakness and indeed were respectable/distinguished enough to be included in the composition of an image heavy with visual symbolism and inference.
http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/19386/lot/314/ Reynolds, Sir Joshua. c1788
The below is a Hogarth print entitled "Characters who frequented Button's Coffee House in about the year 1720" which comes from the museum collection of The College of Optometrists (http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/college/the-college/index.cfm) and depicts a pair of men, Martin Folkes, and Joseph Addison, engaged in discussion and observing the time. Beside them on the table lying a pair of eyeglasses, whilst Folkes, holding a watch is using a pair also. Eyeglasses were carried as part of a gentleman's accoutrements if he required them, and as the century developed (and with it the design and improvements of spectacles) they would have become more and more a personal effect to be on display. Also pictured on the table is a pipe, snuff box (Snuff Boxes) and a sheet of paper entitled 'Votes of the Commons" These items are demonstrative of a male environment; snuff and pipe-smoking were the preserve for the most part of men's social gatherings - women partook of both but the presence of the instruments would have a more emphatically decorative tone.
Sherrow mentions another form of optical fashion in her work For Appearance Sake: The Historical Encyclopaedia of Good Looks, Beauty and Grooming in the form of the lorgnette. These eyeglasses with a handle "became a form of jewellery for the women whose vision needed correction during the eighteenth century." (Sherrow 108) The afterword to D.C. Davidson's Spectacles, Lorgnettes and Monocles describes how in
"the eighteenth century, lorgnettes and quizzing glasses became elegant
accessories of upper class dress and fashion began to influence design.
The fashion for wigs meant that "wig spectacles" were designed as a fashion
accessory, as spectacles which could be worn without interfering with the sit
of one's wig." (Davidson (Wigs).
This was the more extreme side to the "caprice of fashion" surrounding spectacles. In Rosenthal's Spectacles and Other Vision Aids: A Guide to Collecting Corson is quoted stating that
"...the more decorative and stylish forms of spectacles were mercilessly
ridiculed by the satirists as affectations. As usual, those at whom the satire
was directed paid no attention and continued to carry their fancy eyeglasses
whether they needed them or not" (Rosenthal 41).
Thus a pair of spectacles became more than a medical need fulfilled, but a social trend in which to play, affecting a poverty of vision in order to have another means of adorning oneself with indications of wealth and taste. This is a potent trope for character studies, as there is to some degree significant meaning bound up in a figure who peers through highly decorative lenses - not only for weak eyes or a slavish figure to the day's vogue. As the surviving name for the object suggests, there are elements of 'spectacle' involved in using a pair of spectacles publicly and unnecessarily; an individual creates themselves as an onlooker, and by that virtue implies that the world around them is rife with things requiring that individual's personal and purposeful examination.
In a 1709 edition of The Tatler, there is mention of spectacles, again within the contextually social and performative environment of the Coffee House.
"I smile as I see a solid Citizen of Threescore years read the Article from
Will's Coffee-house, and seem to be just beginning to learn his Alphabet
of Wit in Spectacles."
The man described sounds to be almost everything which might be associated with the most brute stereotypes of spectacle-wearers. Aged, earnest, bookish and not yet well equipped in the "Alphabet of Wit" so widely prized in the performative society of the eighteenth century. A strong (if late) example of what might appear to be our retrospective association of spectacles with a predisposition for seriousness is Mary Bennet from Austen's Pride and Prejudice - in order for her to be easily identified as 'the bookworm' she has been dressed to wear spectacles in four out of three major film adaptations. This is a loose and creative point to make but it communicates the idea well enough; somewhere in the last two centuries, we have attached certain attributes to characters portrayed with spectacles, which has translated into today's rabidly hackneyed trope of 'Why X, how gorgeous/attractive/etc you are when you take your glasses off.' It is a trope which has been strengthened in fairly recent history, the roots of which lie more I believe in the nineteenth century's romantic/gothic attachment to stock characters and physical metaphors for personal qualities - however, this trope would potentially not have been present enough to be developed by the nineteenth century, if the mid-eighteenth century boom in production and consumption of it's vehicle, the spectacles, had not taken place.
Spectacles/Eyeglasses in Literature
Following on from the idea of spectacles/eyeglasses as a presence in the semiotics of eighteenth century dress, it is reasonable to assert that there is a direct and relevant link between the name of the item in question, and the concept of 'spectacle' within eighteenth century culture. Both involve looking, and serve to both see and be seen - the OED gives 'spectacle' two definitions;
Spectacle; noun
1. A visually striking performance or display.
2. An event or scene regarded in terms of its visual impact.
Body and Text in the Eighteenth Century succinctly describes how the presence of spectacle/s are intertwined in the literary development of the century;
"Veronica Kelly's 'Locke's Eyes, Swift's Spectacles' looks back from Freud's invention of the unconscious in visual metaphors to an earlier but related moment in the history of the psyche and the technologies that embody it: to the moment when, in the eighteenth century, introspective empirical philosophy and literary biography together focus the subject of consciousness, as if on a lens, in the optical metaphor of a reflective 'I'." (Kelly, von Mucke, 13).
This description correlates very closely with the concept of the 'it narrative' or 'object narrative', a literary form which came about in the eighteenth century almost exclusively in England, and examined the objectivity and therefore the 'object-ness' of items in daily life, which at the behest of writers, developed their own narratives, perspectives, and ways of functioning in an almost anthropomorphic sense - for example a coat not only blushing but being aware of the blush in its own form. An idle thought would be to consider whether somehow Google Glass is the twenty-first century descendant of the eighteenth century spectacles which never made it into an it narrative, finally getting the opportunity to chart its own narrative through the digital footprint of those who use it. Perhaps despite their presence in the eighteenth century codified language of dress and presentation, spectacles and eyeglasses were too close to the root vehicle of vision - the eye itself - to be included in the span of items granted their own life. Coats, Banknotes, Paper, and wigs were all given journeys in popular object narratives, but it is worth considering whether the idea of granting independent thought and judgement to an object through which interpretation and understanding of the world around them was garnered was too controversial for writers of the period. Object narratives often gave a scrutinous, frank and judgmental perspective on human behaviour - to gift a literary platform and a chance to scrutinize human behaviour to an item so vital to man's comprehension of his immediate environment might have been a step too far in terms of a) what might be revealed and b) ways in which a sentient eye-glass could distort or influence man's ability to understand the world around him.
Useful External Links
http://www.college-optometrists.org/en/college/museyeum/online_exhibitions/spectacles/eighteen.cfm
http://www.antiquespectacles.com/history/ages/through_the_ages.htm - a very useful timeline of the development of optical science and technology, listing the significant moments in history when breakthroughs or trends had an impact on the unfolding trajectory of spectacles as both a health and fashion item. Its sibling page http://www.antiquespectacles.com/people/people_earlier.htm is also a very interesting and in depth timeline of figures through history who wore spectacles or owned particularly significant (in design or value) pairs.
http://larsdatter.com/18c/spectacles.html
http://www.pinterest.com/idocusa/evolution-of-optometry/ - a useful dumping ground of information and images related to the development of optical healthcare and its main contributors.
http://thechirurgeonsapprentice.com/2013/06/21/ray-bans-predecessor-a-brief-history-of-tinted-spectacles/ - article on the history of tinted lenses.
Annotated Bibliography
Adams, George. An Essay on Vision, briefly explaining the Fabric of the Eye. 1789. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=-h1GAQAAIAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
- Useful for understanding the perspective of a person not concerned with selling spectacles, but with eye care and general health. The arguments against excessive and unnecessary use of spectacles provides a counter perspective to the advertising battles between Ayscough and Martin.
Ayscough, James. A Short Account of the Eye and the Nature of Vision, Chiefly designed to Illustrate the Use and Advantage of Spectacles. 1750. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=l_pbAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
- Ayscough provides yet another example of the meeting point in an optician's career between scientist and vendor; similarly to Martin he expounds the necessity of spectacles in the face of failing sight, and then goes on to use that argument to steer potential customers towards his own product. Useful for more thoroughly understanding the eighteenth century views on sight and its welfare.
Diaconoff, Susan. Through the Reading Glass: Women, Books and Sex in the French Enlightenment Albany, State University of New York Press, 2005.
- Introduction gives a swift overview and commentary on the status and development of the reading glass/eyeglasses, and locates them as a fundamental perspectival assistant in examining the gendered features of the activity of reading for women, and in examining artistic representations of reading women.
Martin, Benjamin. An Essay on Visual Glasses (vulgarly called spectacles). 1758 http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=CNlbAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false
- Martin's essay is the main vehicle of his marketing campaign for his new style of glasses. Whereas Adams goes into the science of 'the fabric of the eye' Martin is purely concerned with communicating the suitability of his own model to his audience, and that fact makes this essay useful for gauging the tone of competition amongst producers, and the language involved with detailed discussion of glasses.
Pepys, Samuel. The Shorter Pepys ed. Robert Latham. London, Bell & Hyman Limited, 1985.
- Pepys' writing was very useful for establishing a sense of 'what came before' in terms of London life, domestic behaviour, and the perspective of a man who regularly spent money in the city and found himself requiring the services of many tradesmen, among them existing an optician. Pepys' talent for noting intimate social detail alongside sweeping political commentary makes it possible to discern the impacts of trends, habits, and accessories on social life both in the microcosm of his own home and the macrocosm of the city.
Phillips, Edward. The Adventures of a Black Coat. 1760
- Phillips' object narrative was constructive in assisting engagement with the idea of why spectacles might not be a suitable object for the responsibilities of telling an it narrative. The Black Coat's adventures cover a wide variety of generic and also specific life experiences for an item possessed by a citizen and demonstrate the places and situations in which a person's personal effects may be of use, or come under attack.
Steele, Sir Richard. Tatler, 1709. http://0-www.18thcjournals.amdigital.co.uk.pugwash.lib.warwick.ac.uk/transcript.aspx?imageid=178488,178490&searchmode=true&previous=2
- The exchanges of gossip from amongst the city's' popular coffee-houses reported under the pseudonym 'Isaac Bickerstaff Esq' as Steele (and occasionally his friends Jonathan Swift and Joseph Addison) produced in this journal provide a minute glimpse into how a character wearing spectacles may have been characterized. The combination of pithy observant writers, their leisure time afforded by the nature of the reporting environs, and the creative attitude towards the gossip passing through them offers a moment's understanding of the stock character they portray.
Secondary Reading
Corson, Richard. Fashion in Eyeglasses. Dufour, California. 1967
Davidson, Derek C. Spectacles, Lorgnettes, and Monocles Shire Publishing, Buckinghamshire. 2002
Kelly, Veronica, von Mucke, Dorothea E. Body and Text in the Eighteenth Century Stanford University Press, California. 1994
Rosenthal, William J. Spectacles and Other Vision Aids: A History and Guide to Collecting, Norman Publishing, San Francisco.
Sherrow, Victoria. For Appearance' Sake: The Historical Encyclopedia of Good Looks, Beauty, and Grooming. The Oryx Press, Westport. 2001
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