Home >> Collecting >> Antiques

How to Date Antique Eyeglasses

As early as the 11th century, convex pieces of glass known as reading stones were used as desk accessories. By the 15th century, spectacles were being made in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands, to be exported across Europe. However, they continued to be uncomfortable and inconvenient until the development of side-arms in the late 18th century. Antique eyeglasses can be hard to date with exactitude, but you should be able to assign a rough period to a particular example by following these steps.

Instructions

- 1
  Inspect the lenses. Some very early lenses from the 15th and 16th centuries were made of rock crystal rather than glass. You should be able to spot rock crystal because it is extremely hard -- so it won't have suffered greatly from chips and wear -- and very cold to the touch.
- 2
  Look at the shape of the lenses next. Almost all lenses were round until the 18th century, when there was a vogue first for oval lenses, and then for rectangular ones in the 1830s.
- 3
  Turn your attention to the frames. Early spectacles consisted simply of two rings of leather or metal joined together with a rivet that the user had to hold in front of his eyes. By the middle of the 16th century, so-called "bow spectacles" with an arch bridge were available. Made from materials such as leather, wood, horn and bone, these rested precariously upon the nose. By the early 1800s, side-arms had been introduced and frames employed copper, steel, tortoiseshell, silver and gold. Plastic frames made their first appearance a hundred years later.

Antiques