Mrs. Sidney Mason's 1830 opera glasses
date: label: date made
content: 1870-1900
notes: label: Description
content: This is a brass instrument with cylindrical barrels, a shiny black handle, and a black center focus. The objective lenses are 25 mm in diameter. The length is 4.5 cm closed. One eyecup is marked “BAUTAIN BRÉVETÉ / A PARIS.” One eye tube is marked “Mrs. Sidney Mason” and the other “Porto Rico 1830.”
label: Description
content: This example came to the Smithsonian in 1922, in the large bequest of Cassie Mason Myers Julian James. They belonged to her grandmother, the wife of the merchant who, in 1829, became the first U.S. Consul to Puerto Rico.
label: Description
content: The form resembles that shown in the 1827 French patent for “binocles à tirage simultané” (binocular glasses that can be focused simultaneously) that was issued to Charles-Toussaint Bautain, an optician who began in business in Paris in 1816. Bautain probably knew about the introduction of binocular opera glasses in Vienna in 1823, and protested when Jacques-Philippe Lemière, also of Paris, received a French patent for a similar object in 1825.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Costume
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content: Clothing & Accessories
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content: Optics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Estate of Cassie Mason Myers Julian-James
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: CS.033464
label: catalog number
content: 033464
label: accession number
content: 70138
objectType: label: Object Name
content: opera glasses
label: Object Type
content: opera glasses
label: Other Terms
content: opera glasses; Opticals; Accessories Carried; Female
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: glass (lenses material)
label: Physical Description
content: metal stone (stick material)
label: Physical Description
content: wood (handle material)
label: Physical Description
content: flower (barrel style)
label: Physical Description
content: leaf (barrel style)