Objects & Curiosities · Vienna, Austria

Opera Glasses

theatre binoculars, c. 1823–1900

Opera glasses began as a monocular — a tiny decorative telescope advertised in London as early as 1730 — but the binocular version that defines them was born in Vienna in 1823, when the optician Johann Friedrich Voigtländer bridged two small telescopes together. Each tube focused independently, which was fiddly; in 1825 the Paris optician Pierre Lemière added the central focus wheel, and the modern opera glass was complete.

By the mid-19th century they were an essential accessory for the fashionable theatregoer. The great makers, above all Lemaire of Paris (making them from 1847), produced them as jewelry: barrels in enamel, mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, and gilt, some set with gems, many with the long handles the French and Austrians called lorgnettes. To raise them was to be seen as much as to see.

They fascinate as technology turned into pure fashion — optics as status. Early satires loved them for letting theatergoers inspect the details of ladies' dresses on stage that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.

Frequently asked

When were opera glasses invented?

A monocular 'opera glass' was advertised in London in 1730, but the binocular version was born in Vienna in 1823, when Johann Friedrich Voigtlander bridged two telescopes together; Pierre Lemiere added the central focus wheel in Paris in 1825.

Who made the best Victorian opera glasses?

Lemaire of Paris, making them from 1847 — barrels in enamel, mother-of-pearl, tortoiseshell, and gilt, some set with gems, with the long-handled lorgnette versions favored in France and Austria.

Were opera glasses jewelry or instruments?

Both. They were precision optics and pure fashion at once — to raise a pair of enamel-and-pearl glasses in a Victorian theatre was to be seen as much as to see.