Hello,
Well, that has been a hot week! I hope you got to enjoy some sunshine. Deadman and I made a little trip to the seaside on Friday evening when the day had cooled off a bit. We picnicked on pebbly Cley beach, thus avoiding getting sandy sarnies. We watched other brave people and their dogs swimming in the North Sea, but decided that the sea breeze was cooling enough, so didn’t take the plunge! We then returned to the car and cracked open our flask for a cuppa. We know how to live!
Beautiful cats eye supra frame available on our website
Onto Spex; the beautiful cats eyes that I blogged about last time have gone down well with two pairs finding a new home with one of our regular ladies and the lovely blue pair are now available on our website, with more due to go on next week.
Apart from the cats’ eyes, we have been uploading some very stylish Windsor style glasses onto our site. These go back a lot earlier than cats’ eyes and were first produced in the UK in the Victorian era in the 1840s. The defining features of these spectacles are that they are made of metal, either nickel, silver or a combination of both, or if you were wealthy, gold. They are circular or oval with a ‘saddle’ bridge of metal across the nose and no nose pads. They were held in place by the Windsor riding side, which curled tightly around the ears originally designed to keep your glasses in place whilst riding a horse. The frame in the main photo is made of nickel silver and dates from the early twentieth century.
These spectacles were popular for many years, later versions include nose pads, which lift the spectacles away from the face slightly, making them more comfortable to wear. From the 1920s onwards, these frames were available with cellulose rims in tortoiseshell or black. These rims protected the face from direct contact with metal ( some people are allergic to nickel) and gave a stylish and elegant look.
From the 1950s through to the 1970s, the NHS produced this frame and many of our customers remember wearing them as children and youngsters. Also in the 1970s, English manufacturer Lesbro made Beaufort Windsor spectacles with hockey end or curl sides in black, tortoiseshell and even an unusual ‘blue jeans’ rims.
The Windsor style frame style has now become a classic, earning itself a reputation of lending the wearer an air of intelligence and intellectual rebellion, think American writer Ernest Hemmingway, Indian peace campaigner Mahatma Gandhi and much loved Liverpudlian Beatle John Lennon. This tradition continues with that fictional hero of the wizarding world, Harry Potter. All were idealists who influenced others and challenged the old order through implementing new ideas. If you would like to channel your inner intellectual have a look at our range!
Have a good week,
Claire AKA Mrs Dead Man