Opera Glasses
date: label: date made
content: ca 1900
name: label: maker
content: Lemaire
notes: label: Description
content: The mother of pearl eyecups are marked “LEMAIRE FABT * PARIS *.” The objective lenses are 30 mm diameter and the optics are good. The frame is aluminum. The barrels are covered with dark brown leather. The center wheel that adjusts the focus is black metal. A small image of a bee, the Lemaire logo, appears on the central brace. The number “609829” appears on the eye end brace. The carrying case is black leather with a red silk lining; the gold lettering in the cap reads, in part, “24 Palais Royal, PARIS.”
label: Description
content: If this was made for the American market, the words “MADE IN / FRANCE” on the central brace indicate a date after the McKinley Tariff went into effect on March 1, 1891. If it was made for the British market, the words indicate a date after the British Merchandise Marks Act of 1887.
label: Description
content: Jacques Lemaire began making opera glasses in 1847 and was soon a major manufacturer noted for using mechanization, division of labor and interchangeable parts. M.J.B. Baille joined the firm in 1871 and took charge in 1885.
label: Description
content: Ref: William Y. McAllister,<i> Illustrated Catalogue of Spectacles, Opera Glasses, Opthalmoscopes and Meteorological Instruments</i> (Philadelphia, 1882), p. 51.
label: Description
content: Nicholas Gilman, <i>A Dividend to Labor: A Study of Employers’ Welfare Institutions</i> (Boston and New York, 1899), pp. 297–304.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: France: Île-de-France, Paris
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
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content: Optics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Jane and Mary Henle
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: PH.336804
label: catalog number
content: 336804
label: accession number
content: 1978.2216
objectType: label: Object Name
content: opera glasses
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: closed: 4 5/16 in x 4 1/16 in x 2 9/16 in; 10.922 cm x 10.3124 cm x 6.5024 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall in case: 3 5/16 in x 4 3/4 in x 2 1/4 in; 8.41375 cm x 12.065 cm x 5.715 cm