Price reduced. Suitable for a museum collection. 14 k gold eyeglasses marked McAllister with sliding temples. The only other marks are the number 20 and 16. There are no lenses. I have not polished the glasses and they do have dark areas. They could use a good cleaning and polishing but I’m afraid of hurting them so I’m leaving them as is. They are as found by my client in his grandfather’s desk on their estate in Bryn Mawr. McAllister was the first optician in the United States. He opened his shop in 1799 in Philadelphia. Please look at the photos where I included a letter fromThomas Jefferson to McAllister in reference to ordering glasses. These are NOT Thomas Jefferson’s glasses but who knows who could have owed them . Certainly a wealthy and maybe influential early American would own 14k glasses. Mc Allister glasses are represented in many museum collections including the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Smithsonian. A pair 14 k gold glasses made by McAllister especially ones with sliding temples would be a very important addition to a collection of optical history. A perfect gift for an ophthalmologist or optician interested in history. You may want to read more about John McAllister on the internet.

I have attached a photo of the shop from the archives of the National Gallery of Art in Washington. Also I attached an article from the web site of the American Optometric Association. In the article it mentions that McAllister provided glasses for Benjamin Franklin , George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson. Please read h the e article.