COLLECTION | Ginko

Karat Gold Scissor Glasses

c.1810

Karat Yellow Gold, Rose Gold,

Silver, Glass Lenses

Glasses of a “scissor-y” design from the early 19th century, this is an item that hails from Italy. Tri-colored with metals: rose gold, k-gold, and silver—delicate decorations of mythical creatures in smooth, three-dimensional metallic engraving. Drawing inspiration from ancient Greco-Roman and Egyptian artifacts, the design of mythical creatures and animals with wings unfurled was at the time a familiar element of decorative expression.

Glasses that were able to meet the standards of modern optics first emerged from Italy. With glasses’ continuous enhancements in functionality, the increase of the masses’ craving for lenses with a decorative taste also came into sharper focus. Enter the 18th and 19th centuries, exquisitely touched up, high-end jewelry glasses began gaining popularity with the upper class, opening the curtain for appearances rich in design and diversity. The Karat Gold Scissor Glasses is representative of an amalgam of superb jewelry and actual function.

Edwardian Pendant Lorgnette

c.1901-1915

Platinum, Diamonds, Glass Lenses

The short-lived, more-than-a-decade long Edwardian period in the early 20th Century (Edwardian period, c1901-1915) was emblematic of the affluence and elegance the Western elite possessed prior to the First World War. Made with sought-after platinum materials with diamonds of the period, the emergence of such styles was closely linked with developments in jewelry. The high-end glasses of that time were luxurious yet not overly gaudy, emanating a refined air from its sheer presence.

Birthed in the late Edwardian period, this Edwardian pendant lorgnette carries an intense sense of its era. Presented with the most exquisite jewelry art, it perfects the luxury and majesty of the white jewelry style at the turn of the century. The edges of the exquisite platinum openwork base are decorated with delicate millegrain setting and carefully inlaid into shining old-cut diamonds. Its form—the symmetrical geometric structure popular in the 1920s Art Deco period (Art Deco, c1920-1940), was perceptible to those who would later recognize it. The posture of the lenses when they unfold also is unique and dissimilar to the design of traditional folding glasses. One can tell that it was a specially commissioned work at the time. In the field of antique spectacles collection, this too is considered as rare a treasure as can be gotten.

Cartier Art Deco Lorgnette

c.1920

Platinum, Diamonds, Onyxes, Glass Lenses

Lauded as "the jeweler of emperors, the emperor of jewelers" by Edward VII (1901-1910), Cartier (1847-present) has long been the ideal of arts and crafts for jewelry. As a symbol that evokes the classical, it is also stylistically pioneering. In the Art Deco period (c1920-1940), Cartier’s neat lines and bold color pairings were exceptional expressions that led the trend of abstract geometric patterns in jewelry aesthetics.

This lorgnette is Cartier’s superior work in the Art Deco period. With an economical design that blends seamlessly into its linear and circular strengths a linear softness, each segment is further punctuated with dark-colored, delicate black onyx. The skillfulness and accuracy of the proportion on display showcases flawlessly the graceful tidiness of the Art Deco period.

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Mauboussin Pendant Lorgnette

c.1930-1940

Platinum, Diamonds, Rubies, Sapphires,

Emeralds, Amethysts, Glass Lenses

In the initial half of the 20th century, Mauboussin (1827-present), from Paris, with its singular viewpoint and an unparalleled enthusiasm for the Art Deco style (Art Deco, c. 1920-1940) greatly expanded the looks of the Art Deco period’s jewelry. From 1920 to 1930, in international fairs held in such places as Paris and New York, Mauboussin, garnering approval through winning repeatedly the major awards of its day by merit of its feats in design, also captured the favor of royal nobility and political and commercial celebrities of Europe, Egypt, India, and other countries.

This exquisitely-made, colorful diamond bouquet pendant lorgnette’s lenses are comfortably hidden at the rear of the pendant, whose pendant design combines the revived bouquet theme popular in antique jewelry in the 18th century, displayed with the Art Deco period’s “modern” design vocabulary.

A dazzling bouquet of geometrically-arrayed diamonds, Mauboussin, on its wavy streamlined arc boasts cabochon rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and amethysts, whose deft arrangement appears to transform the gems into pregnant flowers with green leaves, more tender and beautiful, gorgeous and luxurious even, under the shine of light, likening with its distilled vibrant life with a hint of eternity.

With its bold arrangement of colors and stylized patterns, Mauboussin, on the strength of its superior expressiveness with colorful gems with which it is consistency identified, has a vivid interpretation that effusively reflects the design aesthetic of the Art Deco period.

Art Nouveau Magnifying Glass

c.1890-1910

Karat Gold, Enamel, Opal, Diamonds, Rubies,

Sapphires, Emeralds, Pearls, Glass Lens

Jewelry of the Art Nouveau period (c.1880-1910) are collectively known as “the garden of the gods” for the jewelry and materials of this period were like flowers in full bloom, each with its own posture.

This piece of hand-held spectacles has both characteristics of the Art Nouveau period: golden frame, carved with patterns resembling the softness of vines, with exquisite light green enamel as the bottom layer for the plique-à-jour (“letting in daylight”) hollow spaces. With the main opal stone shining with playful luster meticulously arranged with inlaid emeralds, sapphires, rubies, diamonds, pearls, the affluence of diverse colors confer it an aura extraordinary. Unlike the transparent lens inlays that are commonly used for lorgnettes, this piece has a special cherry blossom-like pink lens. All this singularity shows the deliberate perfectionism aimed at in the process of the piece in one go making.

Starry Optical Fan

c.1800

Horns, Silver Foil, Textile, Glass Lenses

Outfitting late-18th to 19th-century European high society’s night banquets, dances, salons, and opera performance, more multifaceted forms of spectacles emerged to satisfy the needs of social life. The fusion of the glass lens with the fan, what was then the most important fashion accessory for women, with each opening and closing, the optical fan enabled ladies to peer at their love interests through the lenses embedded in the fan leaves of the folding instrument. The function of glasses no longer was just to assist at looking away, many marriage-seeking men and women were gazers as well as gazed at. Peeking was becoming common in social gatherings of active members of the upper class, a cultural phenomenon that was as unmentionable as it was indispensable at the time.

This sparkling Starry Optical Fan is made of ivory-colored horn flakes and is connected with silk satin of like hue. With star-designed engravings, the fan’s design comprises of elegant cutout patterns resembling lace, further embellished with silver foil. The small lenses are neatly placed in the round apertures of the fan’s first and final flakes, and when folded, it becomes a miniature telescope. The delicate optical fan is good for peering in stealth, and better suited for modest shielding of eyes eagerly gazing in the distance.

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Perfume Bottle

Pocket Monocular

c.1800

Brass, Glass, Glass Lenses

Spy-spectacles circulated until the late 18th century. At the time, members of the upper class were mostly keen on social activities such as balls, dinner banquets, salon parties, and watching opera. These luxurious feasts were the places where young men and women and the married would often stare long at their future partners and prospective lovers. The need for such veiled peering, therefore, resulted in the culture of the production of a type of object—the portable perfume bottle combines with the miniature telescope: fused—fine art to fill the gap in socializing culture and pleasure.

The glass perfume bottle telescope, with its thick crystal glass, using superb mold-blown glass technology to keep the space inside the bottle, permitting a small telescopic eyeglass within the middle, with cut glass engraved on surface texture to finish. Enduring many failed attempts because of its difficult manufacturing process, used on special occasions after being made, the material of the perfume bottle spy binoculars is neither easily preserved nor handed down effortlessly. It is no wonder that the items still in circulation today are numbered.

Chinese Auspicious Tortoise Shell Spectacle

19th Century

Tortoise Shell, Matel, Glass Lenses

The ancient Chinese called glasses “Ai Dai,” which meant heavy clouds and mists covering the sun. The ancient people used this as a metaphor for the eyes being covered by glasses. The Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China era marked a period of rapid development for the new style of Chinese glasses. The wealthy upper class took precious tortoiseshells, horns, gold, silver, and amber materials to make and ornament glasses, grinding natural crystals for the lenses.

This pair of Tortoiseshell glasses’ bridge and temple pieces are decorated with bats and carved into the shape of Chinese coins. Many ingenious associations of the auspicious meaning of all things found in nature exist in Chinese tradition. The second character for the bat in Chinese is “blessings,” phonetically-speaking; and money, “ahead, ” and not just monetary wealth only. For this pair, it takes the eloquence of meaning “blessings richly ahead.”