Eye making. A brief history of artificial eyes made in Virginia, Washington DC and surrounding areas

Historical Significance: This is an attractive booklet written by an ocularist. While focussed parochicially on the author's home turf of the State of Virginia, there is a short general history of the often overlooked art of making and fitting artificial eyes. Ambroise Pare (1510-1590) a French surgeon is reported to have been to first to fit an artificial eye in an eye socket. These and hypoblephara eyes, designed to be on or under the eye lids to cover an atropic eye, were made of gold and silver. Enamel eyes were made from the 1820s to 1890s. Glass eyes were first made in Germany in 1835 although Shakespeare refers to glass eyes in King Lear. German craftsmen toured the world to make glass eyes. Plastic artificial eyes emerged after World War II and were often stock eyes fitted by opticians, optometrists and ophthalmologists. These were popular from 1940 to 1960. Several companies, including the American Optical Company supplied stock eyes. Ocular implants to fill an emply eye socket and even to afford some eye movement were first fitted in 1841.