Box of early uncut hand-crafted glass ophthalmic lenses

Historical Significance: Herman(n) Renk migrated from Germany to South Australia with his parents in 1879 aged 5. After his father's death in 1890, his mother sent him to London to become an apprentice watchmaker, where he also trained as an optician. (His later membership of the Victorian Optical Association in 1911 states he had been a 'principal', rather than an apprentice optician, for 14 years). He returned to South Australia in 1903 and acquired businesses in in Petersburg and Jamestown. Petersburg was changed to Peterborough in 1917 due to anti-German sentiment during World ad 1 so theses lenses were ground before then. In May 1914 his business was taken over by Sacks, a Victorian firm of 3 brothers who were jewellers and opticians. Established in 1911 in Warrnambool, Sacks rapidly expanded, having businesses in Hamilton, Horsham and Melbourne before acquiring Renks. One month later in June 1914, Renk placed an advertisement in the Petersburg newspaper announcing 'For Defective Sight of all kinds, consult H. Renk, Optometrist, Fellow of the Victorian Optical Association, Qualified by Examination as Sight-Testing Optician'. It appears Rank sold his interest in jewellery and watchmaking to solely practice optometry and was one of the first in Australia to call himself an optometrist. Elizabeth Hatfield who donated the lenses practised in Hamilton before retiring about 2017.