Echoes of the past: How glasses became an important status symbol

Echoes of the past looks at the April 17 issue of Optician from 1964. The week the issue went to press: nine men were sentenced for their part in the Great Train Robbery in 1963; Jerrie Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world; and New Zealand’s Colin Bosher set a new record for the number of sheep sheared in a day – 565 in total.

One of the journal’s news pages told the interesting story of a Guardian correspondent that didn’t want NHS frames but was also unwilling to pay the four or five guinea fee for privately purchased glasses. His solution was to purchase a pair of sunglasses for a much cheaper price and fit them with NHS lenses, but experienced difficulties with regulations. The correspondent made his feelings known in a letter to the paper, but Optician noted some interesting questions raised by the affair, such as the right for unregistered vendors being able to sell plano sunglasses knowing that they would be fitted with ‘sighted lenses’.