page_title: Pince-nez
section_title: C-bridge
hierarchical_section_title: Pince-nez / Varieties / C-bridge
caption_attribution_description: Pince-nez or nose-pinching spectacles reached their height in popularity in the late 1800s. They had been around in some form since the 1500s. This pair is typically designed with a C-shaped nose bridge. This example also has a padded leather bridge. The lenses fold at the nose bridge and are secured by a steel latch. Pince-nez spectacles required skill and practice to balance on the nose. These spectacles can be carried in a snap lid case once folded. maker: Unknown maker Place made: England, United Kingdom Wellcome Images Keywords: pince-nez; Optometry; spectacles; Ophthalmology
context_page_description: Pince-nez is a style of glasses, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that are supported without earpieces, by pinching the bridge of the nose. The name comes from French pincer, "to pinch", and nez, "nose".
  Although pince-nez were used in Europe since the late 14th century, modern ones appeared in the 1840s and reached their peak popularity around 1880 to 1900. Because they did not always stay on the nose when placed, and because of the stigma sometimes attached to the constant wearing of eyeglasses, pince-nez were often connected to the wearer's clothing or ear via a suspension chain, cord, or ribbon so that they could be easily removed and not lost.
context_section_description: These pince-nez possess a C-shaped bridge composed of a curved, flexible piece of metal which provided tension to clip the lenses on the wearer's nose. They were in wide use from the 1820s to the 1940s and were available in a variety of styles – ranging from the early nose-padless type of the 19th century to the gutta-percha variety of the American Civil War era and then on to the plaquette variety of the 20th century. The bridges were subject to constant wear from repeated flexing when being set and removed from the face, so would frequently break or lose their tension. An advantage of this variety was that one size could fit a variety of nose bridges but its inability to manage astigmatism or maintain a fixed pupillary distance meant that it was fundamentally flawed for a large proportion of wearers.
caption: C-bridge pince nez spectacles, cased, England, between 1875 and 1925
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