Jenny Benjamin

Not forever.

No.

Okay.

And common.

People needed eyeglasses and it wasn't unheard of to get a pair, but not too many people wanted to wear them

European eyeglasses between 1300 and 1700, let's say, the lenses are small.

And they're manufactured small because they're being ground to a very precise prescription.

In contrast, the spectacles we find in Asia and

The only examples I have are after this colonial time period, so after 1600s, 1700s.

They're much, much larger.

Asian spectacles have much larger lenses and they all are using more native designs.

So we're talking about carved temple pieces or carved nose pieces.

And they're using symbolism that have actually are actually these

really meaningful so things like wishing for wealth or luck or those sorts of symbols are carved into those spectacles and they're i have to say much prettier well thank you

Western spectacles of the same era are very, very practical, right?

They're just how do these are going to stay on your face?

Seems to be the big design decision is how are they staying on your face?

And Asia is like, how can we make these as gorgeous as possible?

So the Western spectacles and Asian spectacles, too, are hindered by the lack of nose pads.

In both areas, so worldwide, I guess we could say, the eyeglasses all had these incredibly long temple pieces.