Esther 106

Face à main were popular in the 19th century and the

early part of the 20th century. Nowadays they seem anything

but practical, especially for the first owner of this pair. Seven

diopters myopia means fulltime wear. I suppose that myopic

ladies in the 19th century tried hard to make the best of it

without correction and only produced their face à main when

it was absolutely necessary to recognize people in the streets.

The famous French actress Sarah Bernhardt (1844 - 1923)

was a high myope (minus ten) and two of her face à main

have survived. They are now in the museum of Pierre Marly in

Paris. Bernhardt never wore eye correction on stage or in

public so she must have developed a strong radar system.

Esther could "see" the fun of our experiment but she soon found

out that it's not easy to keep a stable hand!