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Fig 2
Left: Detail of Les Deux Incroyables, Antoine Charles Horace Vernet, ink and wash, 1794. Right: "The Exquisite" from Fashion, Illustrated by George Cruikshank, 1818
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The term "quizzing glass" came into use toward the end of the 18th century. It is sometimes assumed that quizzing glasses were used only by men as they are most often associated with fashionable dandies of the Regency and Victorian eras, such as "The Exquisite" shown in Fig 2. However, the fashion prints of the Regency show ladies wielding them with as much aplomb as Beau Brummel. And those ladies are not the elderly dowagers one might imagine using such a device, but fashionable young women. In fact, the quizzing glass is such a common feature in fashion prints that it must be assumed that it was an extremely popular accessory. Most prints and portraits of women wearing quizzing glasses show them on a long gold chain around the neck. (See Figs. 3 & 4) Men are frequently shown with a quizzing glass on a black ribbon, though gold chains are also used.
A quizzing glass was as much a piece of jewelry as it was a functional vision aid. They were made of gold, sterling, pinchbeck, and other base metals, and were sometimes quite elaborate in design. The handles might be jeweled, or hold secret vinaigrettes or lockets (see Fig 11). The handle or its loop was often swivel-mounted to make it easier to lay flat when hung from a chain. Though the lenses were generally standard sizes, the handles were of varying lengths. (See Fig 5) Of course, the longer the handle, the more delicious the set-down.
Quizzing glasses were almost always set with a magnifying lens, though some may have been set with a corrective lens since fashionable ladies and gentleman did not like to wear spectacles in public. Quizzing glasses were obtained from opticians and were usually kept in protective leather cases. (See fig 13) It is likely that the opticians set the lens in frames provided by goldsmiths or jewelers.
Quizzing glasses reached a peak of popularity during the first two decades of the 19th century. Around the 1830s, lorgnettes became more popular for women. Quizzing glasses continued as a fashionable accessory for gentlemen through the beginning of the 20th century when monocles supplanted them in popularity.
Fig 3
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Details of fashions plates (also Fig 4).
Left: Ackermann's Repository of Arts, July 1814.
Center: Ackermann's Repository of Arts, Sept. 1815.
Right: La Belle Assemblée, March 1817. |
Fig 4
Left: La Belle Assemblée, March 1817.
Right: Lady's Monthly Museum, Sept. 1817 |
Fig 5
Left: Gold quizzing glass. Loop and lens holder are chased with a floral design, as is the ball at the handle base. Octagonal magnifying lens beveled at edge mounted on a rigid handle. 4 ¼" long. c1820.
Right: Tiny sterling quizzing glass with delicate chased floral decoration and rectangular magnifying lens mounted on a swivel handle. 1 ¾" long. c1830. |
 Fig 6
Gold quizzing glass with twisted rope-style engraving on loop and lens holder. Oval magnifying lens mounted on a swivel handle. 2 ½" long. c1800.
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 Fig 7
Gold quizzing glass with plain coiled handle. Circular magnifying lens mounted on a rigid handle. 2 ¾" long. c1800.
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 Fig 8
Gold quizzing glass with fluted columnar handle. Plain lens surround with an inner ring of floral chased design. Handle loop is swivel-mounted. Circular magnifying lens is beveled at edge. 3" long. c1815.
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 Fig 9
Sterling quizzing glass with chased floral decoration on loop and lens holder. Oval magnifying lens mounted on a rigid handle. 3" long. c1800.
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 Fig 10
Gold quizzing glass with elaborate handle. Lens surround is alternately chased and plain, with an inner ring of twisted rope design. Handle of chased flourishes and ball. Twisted rope-style loop is swivel mounted. Rounded-rectagular magnifying lens with beveled edge. 3" long. c1815.
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 Fig 11
Gold quizzing glass with locket in handle. Lens surround is alternately chased and plain, with an inner ring of twisted rope design. Handle of floral-chased ball and engined-turned round locket that opens to show woven hair beneath a glass cover. Swivel-mounted loop echoes decoration of lens outer surround. Oval magnifying lens. 3 ¼" long. c1815.
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Fig 12
Pinchbeck quizzing glass of elaborate flourish design. The flourishes of the lens surround are cut upon a fine criss-crossed ground and culminate in a tiny flower at the bottom of the lens. An inner ring of twisted rope design holds the glass. The rigid handle echoes the decoration of the lens surround. Circular maginifying lens with beveled edge. 2 ½" long. c 1790.
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Fig 13
Large gold quizzing glass with its orginal case. The lens surround is undecorated and mounted on a rigid handle with chased and engraved designs. The case is stamped leather with the gilt impressed trade mark of T. Harris & Son, Opticians, 52 Great Russell St, Bloomsbury, London. This firm, using this particular trade mark, was in business from 1802 until the 1840s. Circular magnifying lens. 4" long. c 1830.
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There is not much written about eye brooches, but the following sources were helpful in putting together this article:
J. Anderson Black, The Story of Jewelry, William Morrow and Co., 1974.
Shirley Bury, Jewellery, the International Era, Volume I: 1789-1861, Antique Collectors Club, 1991.
Shirley Bury, Sentimental Jewellery, Stemmer House, 1985.
Ann Louise Luthi, Sentimental Jewellery, Shire Publiations, 1998.
Claire Phillips, Jewels and Jewellery, Victoria and Albert Publications, 2000.
Diana Scarisbrick, Jewellery in Britain 1066-1837, Michael Russel Ltd, 1994.
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