ARTICLE - OPERA GLASSES
Now you see it… now you don’t… The first set of binocular opera glasses must have been a little frustrating to use. Devised in Vienna in 1823, it featured two cylinders joined by a bridge – so far, so good. But here’s the catch. Each of the eye-tubes extended independently for focussing, so if one eye was in focus, it didn’t necessarily mean the other eye was. Not surprisingly, this invention was improved two years later when Frenchman Pierre Lemiere developed the centre focus wheel, and a huge sigh of relief was heard from cock-eyed theatre-goers across Europe. A group affair It wasn’t enough to be an expert in All the better to see you with Although the main use of opera glasses was to give a better view of a stage performance, there were other, less cultural reasons to own a set. Sticky-beaking theatre-goers who didn’t want to get caught overtly looking somewhere other than the stage could invest in a pair of jealousy glasses, which featured a sideways mirror to allow a more discreet observation of other people. The technical part There are two main types of opera glasses, monocular and binocular. Both types evolved from Galileo’s invention of the first telescope in 1609, which was capable of a magnification of up to thirty and allowed the seventeenth century viewer to see twenty percent of the moon’s surface without repositioning. Monocular opera glasses were already being Glasses for hire In the nineteenth century many theatre operators realised there was an opportunity to rent opera glasses to the masses, whose cheaper seats were often so far back from the stage that the performers were small, speaking specks. Attendants were available to hire the glasses for one or two shillings until the beginning of the twentieth century, when Edward Morris invented a coin-operated opera glass holder. And that’s just plain silly… In the 1890s an inventor named James Aitchison came up with the idea of mounting the binocular part of the opera glass onto spectacles, thereby saving delicate ladies and foppish dandies from the exhausting activity of actually holding their opera glasses. Aitchison promoted his idea as ‘Apparatus for attaching optical instruments to heads.’ Surprisingly, it didn’t take off. This information appeared in Issue 26 of Antiques and Collectables for Pleasure & Profit.
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optics to create a set of opera
glasses. Far from being a mere functional item, opera glasses were a fashion statement, and painted, inlaid, enamelled and gilded decorations – the more elaborate the better – were required so that when the
owner was casually scanning the theatre audience, others engaged in the same pastime might be suitably impressed at their opulence. Painters, goldsmiths and other artists were regularly employed to pretty
up the glasses.
advertised in London
newspapers as early as 1730. The binocular opera glasses of today – which are remarkably similar to those from the early 1820s – are universally designed with a bridge and focusing wheel between the two barrels.
Often they are mounted on a handle, to prevent the viewer’s wrists from getting too weary holding them up during the performance; this type is known as a lorgnette. The magnification of opera glasses is usually
no more than X3, the ideal amount to both see the activity on stage and retain a wide field of view and bright image. Some glasses even have a light fitted on the side, so that the user can read the theatre
programme as they watch the show.
