Leah 004

These "Coquine" glasses by Essel are early 1960's style but they may have been made a bit later, in the late 1960's or early 1970's. Most remarkable is the Rx of the lenses which is only +0.25. Even nowadays, most opticians would not advice glasses with such a marginal prescription, let alone in the 1960's when glasses were quite expensive. In those days, glasses were only bought when they were absolutely necessary. So my guess is that the Essel glasses were bought by a lady who simply liked to wear glasses sometimes and look a bit different.

A few years ago, one of Nel's daughters went to a well known optician chain to have her eyes checked. Mirjam told the optician that she had a problem driving her car at night. The optician did an ultra quick measurement which gave -0.25 for one eye and -0.25 ; c -0.25 for the other eye. Then Mirjam was told that she did not need glasses. She came home frustrated and angry. When Nel told me this, I brought along some mild prescription glasses and my trial lens set on my next stay at her place. In the evening, I invited Mirjam to do an eye test and she was all go for it. We did this test in a car, Nel was the driver and Mirjam sat next to her. I sat on the back seat and handed Mirjam the glasses and trila lenses. After a bit of experimenting, it turned out that she got perfect eyesight with -0.75 and -0.75, c-0.25. Mirjam then chose a Zenni frame with the help of some photos taken by Nel and I ordered the glasses for her. When Mirjam got the glasses, she was quite happy with them and she said that they made all the difference in the world. Apparently, the optician was unaware that many people have a mild night blindness.