This book provides a comprehensive account of the design of spectacles in their many guises and of the historical developments that influenced them. A detailed history of spectacles is present-ed through a brief synopsis and more than 500 photos.

Spectacles and sunglasses are the most popular fashion accessories of our time. Yet it has taken 700 years for spectacles to take on the form we know today. Over the centuries, an enormous variety of formats were invented: reading stones,rivet spectacles, bridge spectacles, ear loop spec-tacles, manocles and monocles, scissors specta-cles, lorgnettes and wig spectacles.

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contenido

Indice

The development of reading stones (0-1300 AD)

Rivet spectacles (1200-1300 AD)

Bridge spectacles (1400-1500 AD)

Bonnet spectacles, forehead spectacles, strap spec-

tacles and ear loop spectacles (1400-1600 AD)

Chinese and Japanese spectacles (1500-1700 AD)

Slit bridge spectacles, spring frame spectacles, Nurem

berg spectacles and hinged spectacles (1500-1700 AD)

The single eyeglass, the magnifying glass, the manocle

glass and the monocle (1200-2000 AD)

Scissors spectacles (1700-1900 AD)

The lorgnette, the hinged lorgnette and the spring

Iorgnette (1700-1900 AD)

Opera glasses and spyglasses (1700-1800 AD)

Ringside spectacles, wig spectacles and temple

spectacles (1700-1900 AD)

The pince-nez (1800-1900 AD)

Rimless spectacles (1800-1900 AD)

Travelling and safety glasses (1800-1950 AD)

The development of temple spectacles (1900-1920)

Pex spectacles and celluloid (1920s)

Perivist spectacles, aviator glasses and rimless

spectacles (1930s)

Mask spectacles (1940s)

Cat eye spectacles, Nylor spectacles and

sunglasses (1950s)

Op Art, celebrity spectacles and Flower Power (1960s)

Maxi Fashion and Fun Frames (1970s)

Ray-Ban and Polaroid (1980s)

The rise of designer and sports eyewear (1990s)

The designer frame (early 21st century)