A useful little Victorian optical tool with two lenses that fold neatly into a tortoiseshell case. Portable scientific instruments like magnifiers, lorgnettes, microscopes and other close-looking devices became refined, personal objects in the 19th century. Wearing one telegraphed to the world that you were both interested in science AND fashionable.
MATERIALS: tortoiseshell, glass, metal fittings
AGE: c. 1860
CONDITION: Very good - a couple small chips near both hinge pins on one side
SIZE: 2 3/8" length including the bale, 1/2" width