Period Eyewear

[mcn2de]

Re: Eyewear vendors

Not always so when it comes to the lenses in the frames for reenacting. There are a couple of people who specilize in reenacting frames and lenses and I was looking for who has had experience with these vendors.

Mike Nichols

[unionprivate]

Re: Eyewear vendors

Picked up original frames probably 3 or 4 years ago on ebay. Went to my eye doctor, they pulled out the old lenses and put in my scripts. Works dandy, and original too.

[HighPrvt]

Re: Eyewear vendors

Picked up original frames probably 3 or 4 years ago on ebay. Went to my eye doctor, they pulled out the old lenses and put in my scripts. Works dandy, and original too.

I second this. I bought my frames off of Ebay, and had a local optometrist fit lenses.

[Hoosier Yank]

Re: Eyewear vendors

Not always so when it comes to the lenses in the frames for reenacting. There are a couple of people who specilize in reenacting frames and lenses and I was looking for who has had experience with these vendors.

Mike Nichols

Maybe I missunderstood your first question which was...

Any recomendations on who does the best work and the best price.Mike Nichols

I'ma guessin that iz just a dumb ol rube Hoosier.

You're on your own now!

[dclarry]

Re: Eyewear vendors

Not always so when it comes to the lenses in the frames for reenacting. There are a couple of people who specilize in reenacting frames and lenses and I was looking for who has had experience with these vendors.

Mike Nichols

I have purchased prescription period glasses from The Grand Spectacle in Elmira, New York. Excellent service and excellent quality frames.

Website is: http://www.thegrandspectacle.com/

Hope this helps,

Lawrence

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Eyewear vendors

I'm reviving this older thread, because I've just wrecked my historic glasses (with assistance from a toddler who likes "helping"), and I have to have vision this year for events. I'm a little tired of squinting and keeping a vague pleasant look on my face to avoid snubbing people. Of course, all this depends on actually remembering to pack them--using the search function, I found several threads from 2004, and know that I've not changed a lot. :)

I'm looking specifically for a good repro, versus an antique or reconditioned original--mostly because of said toddler. Selling her to the gypsies and enjoying original/refurbished frames isn't an option for me, I'm afraid.

Options I'm looking at are these from Focusers:

http://www.focusers.com/mcallister.html

The shape looks good, and the bridge and temples look to be consistent with what I'm seeing in pictures of originals. My issue with these is the bright steel color--from what I'm reading, most originals seem to be either brass/gold-plate or blued steel.

Something rectangular from The Grand Spectacle (I need something that will work for impressions roughly 1840-1860.)--I've sent off a question about those.

I couldn't find a current website for Ed Welch. Is that still a valid source?

These from Townsend seem a bit heavy looking compared to originals of the mid-19th century:

http://jas-townsend.com/product_info.php?cPath=46&products_id=760

I'm looking for opinions on which option for repros most closely matches what I'm seeing in originals for the 1840-1860 span.

[Richmond Depot]

Re: Eyewear vendors

While I don't know if he is still active in Optometry, Lynn Bull in Goldsboro NC can or could put a set together for you. I know that he is teaching at the college in Goldsboro. He uses original frames and maintained a good supply or you can probably provide your own. While I usually see him at almost every event, I don't have a point of contact for him. Maybe someone else on the board does. A great guy, one of my mentors from the early days of the darkside of reenacting.

[Spinster]

Re: Eyewear vendors

Elizabeth, I have an 18th century version of the style you are looking at on the Townsend site.

Mine are taken after a pair in the Mount Vernon collection, with double oval lenses, the secondary dark pair of lenses swiveling to the side as needed. Several folks in the Winston Free-State snapped these up in the single lense version, either in a reading glass prescription or had their own put in. They are sturdy glasses and withstand a great deal of use and abuse.

You are correct in your assessment though--even without the secondary lenses, these frames are heavy, especially with a glass lense in place--something that you may or may not be able to persuade someone to do. In my case, mine were ground by my retired M. D. and eye surgeon, because he had a collection of such things himself.

They are also too small for a bifocal--thus I have one short lense and one long lense, which means I tend to fuss with them a good bit, and had to tie them on my head with a silk ribbon due to the weight.

If you put a modern lightweight lense into them you may very well have a set of eyeglasses that will stay on your face and still withstand the onslaught of toddler hands :D

[Rob]

Re: Eyewear vendors

Options I'm looking at are these from Focusers:

http://www.focusers.com/mcallister.html

I bought a pair of McAllisters last year. The workmanship was "fair" at best - the eyewires and the bridge were somewhat misaligned. Unfortunately, I did not notice this at first.

You are right about the brightness of the steel - it's as shiny as stainless. I may try some cold-bluing to see if I can mellow them down a bit.

You may have better luck, but let the optician give them a good looking over first.

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Eyewear vendors

Rob, that's what I was worried about--the brightness issue. The additional notes on the misalignment helps, too. Thanks.

Terre, thanks for the notes on the Townsend frames. Strong is good. She's a very lovely little thing. :) I'm blind, but single-vision, which helps; I generally have to go with polycarbonate lenses to prevent them listing starboard all day, as one lens is twice as thick as the other thick lens.

I think I need to head for the library this afternoon and find more books with images of glasses. I want to pinpoint if the heavy-ish Townsend style is really going to work as late as 1840-50.

[Rob]

Re: Eyewear vendors

A note on glass lenses--

(This may not apply to civilians as much as it does to a military portrayal.)

When I was sixteen, I spent one of the longest hours in my life sitting stock-still in a chair while an eye surgeon picked tiny shards of glass out of my left eye. A stupid, totally avoidable accident had shattered the lens on that side. Half a millimeter was about all that separated me from blindness. From that point on, it was plastic all the way.

So here I am, nearly forty years later, playing with firearms and black powder, mere inches from my face. Sorry, no glass for me, thank you. It's just not worth the possible cost.

[Rob]

Re: Eyewear vendors

I bought the round one they suggested as CW period for my husband who is blind without his glasses, but very hard on them. They have the arms that sort of wrap behind the ears.

Just so you know, these were called "riding temples" when they were first introduced, around 1885.

[Spinster]

Re: Eyewear vendors

I think I need to head for the library this afternoon and find more books with images of glasses. I want to pinpoint if the heavy-ish Townsend style is really going to work as late as 1840-50.

Hmmmm---likely not, especially on a woman of your younger age. Townsend is rather 'loose' in their definitions of proper dates for things. You'll not pass for a fashion queen, or even a prosperous Mormon farmer's wife in those.

Even on me, older, rural, eccentric, lower class,---passing the old style off as Papa's spectacles will only go so far--I was greatful beyound words when Mr. Morgan came in with a pair of mid century frames that fit my broad face, and has a prescription in them that closely approximated my distance lense. While they are too fine for me to work in, I can at least scrub up well.

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Eyewear vendors

Yep, that's my worry on the dates. They're not *bad*--just not perhaps as "light" as the images of originals for the roughly 1835-1860 range (backdating a bit, as I've been in specs since I was practically a baby, and want to do some 40s stuff in the future). It's 4:20p, and we've not made it to the library yet, so I think I'll plan on a sans children adventure after dinner.

So far, this is what I've got:

Focusers: nice shape for 50s/60s, too fashion forward for 40s into the 50s, wrong color, possible issues with structural soundness.

Reenactment Eyewear: possibly no longer available

Grande Spectacle: waiting on information, so that's up in the air but possible.

Townsend: potentially too early to be really useful for mid-century, but might work for my earliest era stuff (1840) if I work on getting some wrinkles at some point.

Are there any other repro eyewear makers out there right now, or do I need to bite the bullet and start looking at strong originals (eep.)?

[Rob]

Re: Eyewear vendors

Focusers: nice shape for 50s/60s, too fashion forward for 40s into the 50s, wrong color, possible issues with structural soundness.

Actually, they are structurally sound - I bent the bejeezus out of them with two pairs of needlenose pliers to line up the eyewires, and they didn't come apart.

I could have returned them, but I was in too much of a rush... I needed them the following week.

Also tried some Birchwood Casey "Perma Blue" on the frames - a waste of time. They're still as shiny as ever.