A Collection of Miniature Stanhope Monoculars

S. l.: s. n.. Very good. Eight monoculars, n. d. (early 20th century); approx. 1/2 x 1/4; celluloid and glass; three of them retaining their tiny metal rings and loops for hanging, another with just the ring; minor wear - just one with a small chip to upper edge; in very good or better condition.The history of Stanhopes could be traced back to the mid-19th-century, shortly after the invention of photography. Inventor John Benjamin Dancer began printing microphotographs onto glass slides and, in turn, French photographer Rene Dagron saw the potential of the miniature images - eventually patenting the first Stanhope lens, mounted with a miniphotograph in 1859. They were named after a magnifying device, invented in 1809 by Charles, Third Earl Stanhope. It contained a miniature glass cylinder, with one end ground into a convex form and the other end having a tiny, translucent photograph mounted to it. When held to the light - the image could be seen with the naked eye, through its curved lens. The latter could be inserted in various everyday objects - jewelry, pens, watch fobs, or, as is the current case - monoculars, which were initially manufactured from bovine bone and later - from celluloid.Of the current collection - teo of the images were identified with captions - General Marie Edme Patrice Maurice de MacMahon (1808 - 1893), French politician, who served as President of France from 1873 to 1879, and the Eglise de la Sainte-Trinite de Paris - a beautiful Roman Catholic Church, built during the reign of Emperor Napoleon III. A third image could possibly depict the Niagara Falls. The rest are not definitively identified.