Historical Eye Glasses From Jas. Townsend and Son

[@townsends]

The eyeglasses we offer have changed a bit over the years but you can find our current options here www.townsends.us/collections/eyewear

[@pamsolomon4777]

I remember my mother using a quizzer before she got eye glasses. She was born in 1942, but she was a lady of traditions and was the epitome of elegance. Love your post.

[@grappleapple475]

now this is how you sell merchandise. I loved watching this. Its always interesting to hear a piece of history. Thanks for sharing this

[@donnadequire-rios3531]

grappleapple475 he's great at it.

[@paulrickards4921]

Yuppie

[@PwnageFury]

My husband bought a pair of your hinged temple glasses a few years ago and they are fantastic. They look great with his Colonial clothing and he was able to get prescription lenses for them so he can actually see where they are marching . Great product!

[@chuckfarmer4087]

Picked up a pair a couple of months ago and had them fitted with prescription reading lenses. They help fit one of my colonial personas as a quartermaster in the Continental Navy Frigate ALLIANCE for Sons of the American Revolution events. Nice accessory, AND, I can see!

[@MickScarborough]

Finding round lens frames in modern glasses is next to impossible so these are great.

[@caomhan84]

Seriously? Just search "round", "P3", or "Panto" at any eyeglasses website and you'll find hundreds of round lens frames. It's very much still a thing, because many people have either a fitting issue or a tough prescription that basically requires a round lens shape. But I do agree that these are a great find for people that want that unique 18th century style.

[@KyleOfCanada]

@@caomhan84 I've been looking for a new pair of glasses recently without making much headway, but the "P3" was helpful in finding a pair along the lines of what I was looking for. Thanks!

[@futeramonfuturamet4830]

And the newer ones available tend to be more hippie or John Lennon type glasses than that.

[@Libertaro-i2u]

They still make perfectly round eyeglasses today.

[@conleymacp]

I remember reading once that hundreds of years ago (not sure the correct time period) in China, people used eyeglasses with cords for the temple piece instead of the typical arm, with weights on the end draped over the ear. Works pretty well, a friend did that to his broken glasses and wore them for years. Love your channel, your enthusiasm is genuine!

[@lordski1981]

I got a pair of the 19th Century frames, and it was easy getting my prescription in them. They have been wonderful, and have added a whole new element to my impression! They are definitely worth every penny guys!

[@hoyfr]

I really like that your' merchandise is American made. Thanks.

[@KowboyUSA]

I especially like the Ben Franklin temple style pair.

[@gloriagomez2327]

I’m astounded by the merchandise you sell in your store and catalog ! Jon you are a great salesman because you have so much knowledge and you throughly explain such historical items were used !!! 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽

[@bclegg92]

I've always been intrigued and curious as to how severely nearsighted or farsighted individuals who need glasses to function fared during this time period. Did many of them simply suffer through it? or did they find another means to survive? In imagining myself in this time period it seems like life would have been difficult and sometimes dangerous if your vision was less than perfect.

[@alexshadowfax1119]

I love how comments like yours are asking a question and im sure after thousands of people viewing it and few thumbs up you have gotten no answer lol and after my comment it remains the same

[@JessieHTX]

I know this is old, but I’ve done some research as a nearsighted history fan. During the 18th century, there were eyeglasses for both near and farsighted folk. Though nearsightedness is more common today than back then. Going to an optometrist and getting a prescription didn’t begin till the early 19th century, as opposed to trying a bunch on till you find the best fit. I imagine many people could afford a pair if they weren’t too poor, but I don’t think they’d often upgrade.

[@paulrickards4921]

Myopia was not as prolific as it is now We are in a myopia epidemic now

[@4eyedjohnson954]

I wonder how many of them had no idea how "bad' their eyesight was. Unless you really compared with someone side by side, you might not really know how bad your vision is. I didn't get glasses until I was almost 20, I knew my vision was lower than average but I had no idea just how bad it was until I put perscription glasses on for the first time.

[@zxb995511]

The answer to your question hinges on what profession and what social status the person in question had. You also have to ask how severe the visual defect was...but for most manual labor tasks any vision defects were mere annoyances and you could practice your craft mostly unchanged. If you did skilled labor though, you might have to retire from your craft if you could not get some eyewear.

[@donnadequire-rios3531]

I love love this channel. I am so happy to see how fast ur channel is growing. What an amazing channel, we learn how people cooked in the past and in the process we learn some history of r great nation. Great job. God bless u all at Jas Townsend and Son

[@TheSleepysleep]

Do you have any videos about women's clothes/hair/make-up from the 18th century?

[@KairuHakubi]

I seem to remember seeing once, glasses that had dangling chains with slight weights, that you'd drape behind your ears. I don't know when those were made though, or where.. Might have been china actually.

[@macgames]

pince-nez like the "Nuremburgs" he shows sometimes had a chain or ribbon attached to a pin, or clip that could attach your lapel or collar, or some had hooks that could wrap around your ear so you didn't drop them if they fell off your nose.

[@robbinlynnspencer-buchtel6896]

Thank you sir for posting this. I am part of a newly formed Living History group & many of us (including my teen daughter) need to wear glasses. This is going to save us & me from a ton of headaches.

[@kendrickkelly2336]

I want to give these frames to my optometrist and tell him that I want them fitted with progressive lenses...Just to mess with him.

[@leog8359]

I asked for a monocle. No dice.

[@gilgameshismist]

Optometrist here, I wouldn't bat an eye, I'd simply say: it will be ready in a week. ;)

[@ubermom]

I don't see why it would mess with him. Years back I bought a pair of vintage eyeglasses at an antique mall and had a set of scratch-resistant, pale rose-colored, lenses put in for my then-husband. He loved them and always wore them for reinactments.

[@Libertaro-i2u]

Hahahaha.

[@Talondas]

My glasses that were issued to me by the Navy for wear on submarines were very similar to your third set and I would have to crank out the frames just like you demonstrated. I would also curl the ends of the temple pieces back so they wouldn't dig into the back of my ears.

[@carolynbrown2502]

I really enjoy your channel. Do you think at some point you would show us how to make lye soap thank you

[@townsends]

Carolyn Brown So much to do! Thanks for the suggestion and thanks for watching!

[@DystopianEmpire01]

+Jas. Townsend and Son, Inc. You certainly have plenty of wood ash to work with. : )

[@photorailfan]

Love the late 18 century frames. I want a pair.

[@dominofalling2038]

My first job, last century, was making prescription spectacles. Nice to see how well you have designed your frames. Just a note - when adjusting the side bars to always brace a little away from the glass lenses as any pressure from the metal frame against the lens could break/chip the glass.

[@Libertaro-i2u]

Glasses have come a long way!

[@Avi2Nyan]

Ayy, nice to see these. Reminds me, Black Sails had mister Dufresne wear those temple glasses, though that supposedly takes place around 1720

[@artyom_zdanek]

I have corneal damage from grinding metal,I am a blacksmith after all, and I have , naturally, near (left) and far(right) sighted eyes. A elderly gentleman recommended that I get a monocle for my right eye, the one with the most corneal damage, however the last pair of glasses seems really nice, I really enjoy the Nuremberg style too. I was wondering, what would you recommend?

[@Libertaro-i2u]

Maybe

[@TomsBackwoods]

Awesome info and it looks like a great product John! Thanks for sharing !

[@NuclearRoll]

Really appreciate the effort that you put in to these videos :)

[@curtisthomas2670]

Those sterling temples are absolutely gorgeous

[@sarahvanorden670]

So with all the historical actors I have seen, only the men seem to be wearing glasses, what if a woman would have need them? Would they wear the same style?

[@EuropeYear1917]

To my knowledge, both men and women wore the same style glasses back then. As we've only had the basics of "modern" prescription lense technology since the mid-19th Century (which isn't that long ago, in the grand scheme of human history), 18th and early 19th Century men and women who used vision correction did so only when they needed to read print that they could not see clearly with the naked eye, or when working with small or precision instruments and tools of the era. Since people didn't wear glasses all day long to improve overall vision until at least the era right before the American Civil War (second half of the 19th Century), the idea of "fashionable glasses", particularly ones specifically designed for one gender or the other, would not really become a thing until at least the very late 19th century, if not early 20th Century at earliest.

[@justinelliott3529]

@@EuropeYear1917 god save the tsar

[@ThreeSpeedBikes]

I wore a pair of cable temple glasses very similar to those shown here for about 2 years. They were perfectly good daily glasses. I even wore them to jog, ski, and bicycle because the cable temples kept them from sliding off my face. I lost them in the ocean one summer when I was boogie boarding and was hit by a sudden, large wave and completely upended. It took that much to knock them off of me. Good glasses.

[@dianejohanson98]

In early 1800's how did they figure out how to shape the glass to make prescription eyewear so that a person could wear them all the time to see better, not just for reading? Also who did people go to back then to have their eyes checked and how did they figure out what the prescription was? I love your videos for the history and the great content! Keep them coming.

[@Rasgonras]

As he says in the video, they rarely did. Most glasses were for reading, and prescriptions didn't exist back then at all AFAIK.

[@JosephMadder]

I'd like to imagine someone looked through an imperfection in a window and flipped out when they saw clearly

[@petman515]

Joseph Madder not fully my understanding is that they understood the concept of eye correction but lacked the technology to do so effectively at A reason able price or consistency. Its worth pointing out that eye a

[@petman515]

(Sorry phone sent sent unfinished reply) that BY the late 1800s modern eye correction existed sir author conan doyal was a trained optometrist as his day job (yes the same man who wrote shrlock Holmes)

[@Libertaro-i2u]

Glasses would have seldom been worn in public back then, as it wasn't until the mid 20th century that glasses became fashionable.

[@virginiamanning6025]

I am almost legally blind, my lenses are precision made to give me depth perception, and distance and i cant "fake" them in historic garb...and my lenses cost 300 dollars a pair

[@Martial-Mat]

What a fantastic business you guys have created for yourselves.

[@wrathofthemonarch]

When did they start putting tinted glass into frames? Did they have sunglasses in the 18th/early 19th century, or would that have been more a late 19th/early 20th century innovation?

[@townsends]

wrathofthemonarch Tinted lenses are often seen in collections of 18th century eyewear. Some people had some very interesting ideas about the health benefits of different colors. It is a fascinating topic that we hope to delve into in the future. Thanks for the comment and Thanks for watching!

[@wrathofthemonarch]

Thank you for the reply and the great videos.

[@MasterMichelleFL]

COOL new style!! I love them!💚

[@TheWesDrake]

Now I feel self conscious, Like I got a Fat head .LOL

[@donnadequire-rios3531]

The eye 👓 r cool, I must buy a pair.

[@amywright2243]

My husband has your 19th century frames that he added prescription lenses to. He gets compliments all the time and brags on you!

[@randallhermanson7610]

When did sunglasses or shaded lenses come into use? I have seen smoked lenses in glasses but am not sure how far back they date. I need sunglasses on sunny days and the glare gets to be a problem when reenacting where sunglasses are distracting from the character and the setting. Wearing a wide rim hat helps but sunglasses are best.

[@Lucius1958]

I would dearly like it if you had a replica of mid/late 19th c. pince-nez available. The pair I use for reading are currently falling apart, and it's hard to find replacements for them. (I do have a pair of original 18th c. double hinged spectacles, which I occasionally use [with modern lenses] for certain distance purposes)...

[@mongalmay6463]

This is fantastic and vintage. I would love to have one

[@RickWolfff]

Nuremburgs! I love those. Were they discontinued?

[@MattyC0900]

Hey man, really enjoying your videos. Is there any particular reason that the faces of those living in the 18th century? Malnutrition, etc? Thanks.

[@lananieves4595]

My grandmother had an old pair of glasses like these, in an old leather case. My guess is they belonged to one of her parents. I wish I'd held on to them.

[@michaelpthompson]

I can't believe it! I tried your bending process and broke the temple on my 19th century frames I got from you.

[@elha7982]

I forgot how "commercial" some of the old episodes were. Still the best ad of 2015

[@JimCarver]

Wow, that's awesome, I 've seen most of Jon's videos except this one.

[@Petra44YT]

Omg I'm so glad we have proper glasses today :-)

[@grizzly3956]

In addition to selling the wider glasses for modern faces, start selling narrower, more period faces! Give your leatherworkers and seamstresses a challenge! ;)

[@Losttoanyreason]

I could use one of them quizers for reading the stupid instructions on prepared food boxes and medicine bottles. The link for the eyewear gives a 401 error

[@vox1962]

This is a completely innocuous video, why on earth would anyone downvote this? Just to be a__holes?

[@lorib1696]

I wish I could get a pair of these but I have yet to find an optician that will do custom lenses. I've tried numerous opticians over the years but they only sell lenses for frames they carry. If I walk in with my own set of frames they won't even talk to me. I've had to resort to getting the roundest frames I can find in colors that sort of blend in so they don't attract too much attention. Rimless frames work great for this but those are hard to find in round lenses. I've asked why can't I get any shape lenses since there is no metal going around the lenses but they just wont do custom work. It's so frustrating.

[@TameraWeeks1]

Very interesting Jon!

[@lexington476]

wearing a fairly string prescription myself, I wonder how did they do eye exams to get prescription lenses back in the eighteenth-century?

[@dowopdodge832]

Hello again; I remember these from an earlier video.There really fantastic pieces. I was wondering if your ever going to venture into trying to remaster the Ben Franklin original bifocal's. That would be some way cool reinacting material.

[@miriamquintana755]

My rabbi has reading glasses very similar to the second ones you show.

[@bobspencer2990]

I see leather frames for spectacles mentioned quite often in ads in 18th-century newspapers, but can't seem to find any examples. Are you familiar with these? Some examples of the ads... The Pennsylvania Gazette July 28, 1737 TO BE SOLD, BY John Brientnall …. Where also old Spectacle Glasses are leather'd. The Pennsylvania Gazette January 13, 1743 Just imported from LONDON, ...horn, wire and leather spectacles, The Pennsylvania Gazette March 30, 1758 Just imported in the Snow Two Brothers, ...Variety of the finest Chrystal Spectacles, set in Temple Steel, leather or other Frames.

[@RedSpiralHandTV]

So my son makes something like the Quizzing Glass except a little larger. He uses them to make fire using the sun...haha.

[@JohnDoe-tx8eu]

It's also the most tasty way to light a pipe, matches and lighters always add some flavor you dont want.

[@Der_Kleine_Mann]

@@JohnDoe-tx8eu Man that's awesome. I never thought about doing that🤦‍♂️ But I will definitely try it next time when the sun is shining😁

[@rwboa22]

I would love to get a pair of the 19th Century frames and have them fitted with my prescription. Growing up, I wore the "aviator" style frames, but in 2010, I switched over to bronze-colored small "oval" style mimicking Been Franklin's oval glasses. My current frames are (which are black) look like the "Been Franklin's," but a bit too modern looking for me.

[@grimreaper4042]

I just went to purchase the last pair but can’t find them on the website 😭

[@Rasgonras]

How come that people have wider faces nowadays? Is that because of lifestyle, nutrition during childhood, overall health maybe?

[@emoAnarchist]

people find wider faces more attractive. therefore wider faced people have more sex and pass on their genes.

[@fahr]

we're slowly evolving into big headed grey aliens

[@TC-8789]

Almost certainly nutrition and, for the late 20th century, hormones in meat as well. People trend taller today, too.

[@woooweee]

I think they were just saving on metal.

[@kbilisoly9355]

How did people get along before glasses?

[@KelliepbAclecticChannel]

i seen in your older videos the rectangle frames....why did you discontinue them because I was going to order them?

[@rays5163]

I like how how when John throws on the glasses he makes a nkinda smug "told ya so" face lol

[@mac2894]

Oooooh I wish you still sold the silver readers!

[@Mary20457]

What is the use for the double hinged glasses?

[@gma5587]

Very interesting! 👓

[@mermaidjaffa9135]

My eye power is -11 and -12, and are bifocals. Would someone in those days with my eye power have glasses or did they just get whatever they could?

[@xyonpeculiar4301]

Faces were thinner back in the 18th? I'd like to hear more about that!

[@erinsquire2749]

I here classes all of my life since when I have eye surgery I was a 6 month old baby

[@MchaelTeeter]

I like them glasses! since I'm almost blind I would have to get some made up of were to do reinacting

[@utooth8114]

Hi I've been watching a lot of your videos, thank you for sharing. Do you know how the cable temples are made? I would like to make a set in Sterling Silver. Thanks in advance.

[@chriswatkins2334]

I have a pair of English made Temple glasses that are marked from the English mint to be from 1777. The lenses are intact and an excellent shape for being that age. the mint marks have been researched to England official mint and 1777. any idea what they possibly could be worth or who to get ahold of to find out?

[@manfredkrepskyz.3474]

Nice channel!

[@mv6771]

Hi, I dont see the quizzer on the website.. Is it still available?

[@SavageGreywolf]

I know it would not have been very common, but would there have ever been sunglasses in period clothing? I know that sunglasses did not become particularly 'stylish' until the early 20th century, but I have read that opticians began developing tinted lenses in the mid-18th century.

[@Renfield37]

what i did with mine.. i have the 19th century glasses they are very good but my temple pieces.. i did bent them out a little so they dont bother my temples but i subtly..opened them out a little but so they just barley touch my temples and its not noticeable that i did bend them out.. but this is the 2nd pair i had got the 1st pair bent and broke some how but this 2nd parr i got a few years ago the screws are too tight to unscrew to put the old lenses in so i just wear them with what came in them

[@andreaharmon8931]

I have a very high eye glass prescription. I'm -9 in one eye and -9.5 in the other. Can these frames hold higher perceptions?

[@isabellabihy8631]

You call them Nuremburgs, a German colloquial expression for them is "nose pinchers" (translated: Nasenzwicker).

[@null9163]

Do you guy's still sell the pince-nezs?

[@lcdrhobiesaunders446]

Do you have reader lenses in the 19th century glasses?

[@garyklafta3411]

I LIKE AVIATORS STYLE EYEGLASSES THEY MAKE YOU LOOK COOL. THEY ARE GOOD FOR RIGHTEOUS SHADES .

[@cosettelewallen4281]

Why were our eyes more closely located compared to now? What happened to make our eyes become wider spaced?

[@Greenwickpress]

I always wondered when glasses with stems started being made.

[@gaylecheung3087]

Amazing, thank you ♥️🇨🇦🌏🤓

[@josiahclinch6219]

so do these be use with today's prescription?

[@djdrack4681]

wait. people have a wider face today? Like do you mean just from the increased dietary intake/nourishment that we have now, or that like the skull/musculature has changed a little bit.

[@Emil_Nielsen]

I cant find the silver glasses on the website :(

[@BryceByerley]

Hey there...it's been about 3 years since this video dropped, but I was wondering if you still carried the Neurenberg glasses. I did not see them on the web site.

[@townsends]

Not currently but there is a chance they might come back.

[@agypsycircle]

What happens if you have really bad eyesight? Is there a place that will make prescription lenses for glasses like these?

[@Clloyd405]

I'm going to feel so empty when I finish all of these videos :( ...nah I'll just start them again.

[@Tony78432]

I tried buying a pair of vintage eyeglasses online but they’re impossible to find to fit my face. My face is simply too large it sucks

[@elluisito000]

nice video! what is the time frame of this objects? :D

[@colonialtimes2705]

Is there any chance of making Nurembergs suitable for daily use?

[@townsends]

Colonial Times In what way are you thinking?

[@colonialtimes2705]

Colonial Times Like Using them every day, not for reading. For example, it can stay on your nose for day to day, without falling out. I normally pay attention to Sweden during The Great Northern War, so temples were not common/made.

[@Karen-is9ff]

Interesting how the width of our faces have generally gotten wider over time.

[@SassyTesla]

you guys don't carry the nurembergs anymore :(

[@robertcowley-yamamoto4880]

I entirely misread the title before I clicked and thought it was a video about historical glass eyes not eyeglasses

[@DrinkYourNailPolish]

I love the look of the eyewear, but if I lived back then I probably would've gone blind- I have glaucoma.

[@emm_arr]

Very interesting. They do make you look like Martin Freeman.

[@braun7747]

There are issues with your spectical frames. Many hisorians and students of historical eyewear agree that the classic eyeframe for the 1770s was a blend of two of the frames you offer. To make a frame that more closely resembled the originals: 1. Raise the bridge between the oculars by several mm. This was a standard feature of period frames; 2. The side bows were made of steel and articulated on a screwed hinge 3. The side bows terminated in the circle loop seen in the earliest reproduction frame you offer. The circle loop on original frames was slightly smaller in diameter and quite delicate. The frames with the articulating bows terminating in a teardrop loop was very slowly coming onto fashion in the late 1770s. The style was more popular in the 1790s and we see the teardrop loop feature on frames though the 1860s. I promise that making modest changes to your existing frames: raise the bridge; articulating bows with small circle loops- you can eliminate the first two steel frames and offer one very correct 1770s frame. You are the only vendor who offers these frames. Make the suggested changes and offer one choice of colonial spectacles frame- and you will clean up financially. Promise.

[@brianblankenship6290]

is there a way to share photo's on this you tube page i have the first pair i want to show you guys

[@teganl6032]

Makes me wonder if people were as blind as me in the 18th century...like how would they have functioned? I have a -8 (right) and -6 (left) prescription - basically anything farther than 3 inches from my face is blurry. He seems to be mostly talking about reading glasses, which wouldn't help someone who has vision like mine.