Eyewear

This is an optical opulence. This is an eye-popping book spectacle. Eyeglass designer Moss Lipow trawled eBay, auction houses, garage sales, and flea markets worldwide to amass glasses and photographs for his massive eyewear collection. This book, which traces eyewear’s journey over the past millennium, features the best examples from Lipow’s collection as well as models from other world class collections. Considering the wealth of examples included herein-such as prehistoric whalebone eye guards used by Eskimos, 13th century wooden rivet spectacles for Italian clergy, Medieval strap-on leather goggles, lorgnettes worn by 19th century dandies, pince-nez and monocles, early 20th century aviator sunglasses, and Godard’s mod plastic frames-it’s abundantly clear that eyewear has experienced a surprising and fascinating evolution; what was once a purely practical apparatus has grown into a multi-billion dollar global industry catering to both the visually impaired and the fashionably inclined. Accompanying the wealth of images in this wide-ranging volume are insightful texts informed by a wide variety of sources including ancient texts, old catalogues, vintage magazines, and out-of-print publications of every kind.