Glasses from Amsterdam: a potted history.

Hi there

We have just returned from our short break in Amsterdam, it is one of the few cities that is really easy to get to from Norfolk! The flight takes thirty five minutes from Norwich airport.

The Brilmuseum

Dead Man assures me that the main allure was the Brilmuseum ; the glasses museum. Amsterdam has an eclectic selection of quirky museums, including the torture museum and the Tassenmusem museum of bags and purses. However, we had a first with our landlady as she had never heard of the Brilmuseum!

Inside the Brilmuseum

The Brilmuseum did not disappoint and is a fantastic place for lovers of vintage glasses. They have a comprehensive collection of all things optical. The first floor is a shop selling vintage spectacles (although most only dated to the past 30 years) and the museum is on two floors of a traditional Amsterdam house.

safety and industrial specs

We were excited by the frames; there was a wide range, including rare 18th century 'Martin's Margins' (see the Deadman's own fine example here),  great flying goggles and a wide selection of dramatic 1950s and '60s  cocktail glasses.

Cocktail and Viennese ball inspired frames 

If you're ever in Amsterdam and fancy feasting your eyes on a great selection of vintage glasses it's worth seeking out, and you won't have to queue, we had the place to ourselves.

TTFN Mrs Deadman

Dead Men's Spex; A Little Vintage Lover of a lovely little village. (Say three times very quickly!)

Hi there

It's August already and on Sunday 4th August  Dead Men's Spex is off to a Little Vintage Lover Fair in Heydon, a privately owned village in deepest rural Norfolk. Heydon is a beautiful place with only one road for access. It has a parish room, church, pub, bakery, tea room and some attractive cottages all nestled round a very pictueresque green.These are all close to the Elizabethan Heydon Hall, home of the Bulwer Long family.

The fair is held in the recently refurbished parish room; a world war one soldiers' hut which was moved from Staffordshire to Norfolk in 1922.  The shows here have a lovely old world atmosphere, perfect for a vintage fair. So if you fancy a day out come and see us all at Heydon!

Heydon  Parish Room

I look forward to a fun day out,

TTFN Mrs Deadman

Dead Men's Spex

Sunglasses - 50 shades of glamour.

Hi There
Wow! We've got a proper summer at last! This provides a perfect opportunity for a bit of vintage glamour in the form of some cool sunnies. I was looking into their history; it is only in the last 50 years or so that they have been widely available to the masses. Modern sunglasses originated in America; in 1929 Sam Foster began selling sunglasses through his eyewear company Foster Grant, an enduring name which is still popular today. In the thirties and forties sunglasses were luxury items mainly worn by the glamorous elite.

Polaroid, a brand name synonymous with sunglasses was created by Dr Edwin Land who invented polarizing glass which effectively filters out horizontal rays of  light. Polaroid went on to be the biggest seller of sunglasses and is now part of Safilo, the Italian eyewear company. 

In 1936 American pilots were issued with large sunglasses to protect their eyes, these were soon known as aviators after the people for whom they were originally designed. These were manufactured by Ray Ban and Shuron. They proved so popular that a year later they were sold to the public and have been an enduring fashion statement ever since. General MacArthur, the WW2 commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific was regualrly photographed wearing his and did much to promote the style.

The most common lens colour of vintage sunglasses is green. Dead Mens Spex. can fit green, brown or grey lenses, either plain or prescription, into any pair of our vintage spectacles. Take a peek at our range of sunglasses which include original vintage frames and Swing frames from the Polaroid Hertiage range.

So have fun in the sun.


TTFN Mrs Deadman

Clare a great place for antiques.

Hi There

Summer is finally here and recently we had a few days away in Clare, Suffolk. It is a small wool town full of lovely mediaeval architecture and history, consequently it is great place for antiques and vintage.We spent a morning browsing in Clare Antiques and Interiors gradually working our way through the four floors of goodies. According to Deadman there were 106 dealers. They had a wide selsection of items including some lovely vintage clothes and handbags and loads of books, but alas, no glasses. We also had a good brevit in a bookshop, one of Deadman's favoured habitats, this one's called Harris and Harris .

Clare Antiques centre

We're back in Norfolk now and Deadman's bought some new ladies' frames  which are just about to go the website.

Original 1960s Polaroid Cool Ray sunglasses 

Supra (top) and two tone cat's eyes frames.

TTFN Mrs Deadman

Hemsby 2013

Hi There

The rock'n roll show at Hemsby went off well, I helped out on the Dead Men's Spex  stall on Sunday and it was good to catch up with everyone. Mortimer, our mascot, made his show debut.

Mortimer at Hemsby

We also got some new stock thanks to Shona from  Heyday  who picked up some lovely ladies' white pearlised frames on a recent trip to France. They need to go through the workshop and once they have I think I may just have to have a new pair of sunglasses...

TTFN

Mrs Deadman

Dead Men's Spex at Hemsby

Hi there

Hooray! Spring has arrived and with it the start of the show season. Deadmen's Spex is off to Hemsby Rock N Roll weekend on Friday 10th May to Sunday 12th May. I've dusted Deadman down ready for his first show of 2013. This is our seventh year at Hemsby and we are looking forward to seeing our customers and friends. 
All the stock is ready, Deadman has been busy in his workshop preparing a whole selection of great new frames for both ladies and men to complement our usual stock. My favourite has to be a beautiful aluminium Tura frame. 

Some of our new men's frames

Tura fame; a glamorous addition to any vintage gal's wardrobe!

See you next weekend

Mr and Mrs Deadman 

Spectacles, art and everything - the tooth the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth!

I’m often asked that if money was no object what frames would I love to own in my collection.

Well to be honest, most collectible frames tend to be collectible due to the provenance of the person who owned them and not necessarily the quality of the frame.

Who wouldn't want to own a pair of frames once worn by Gandhi (£34,000) , John Lennon (£1 million+) or Churchill (£11,200) ? The intrinsic value of the frame is low, but once touched by the magic of the owner the desirability and material worth is multiplied many thousands of times.

In the other corner sits the frame whose value lies in what it is and not who owned it. This is the area that interests me, as it is also the area which pushes the boundaries of design and material often making what is, at its simplest a utilitarian item, into a work of art.

Take for instance the work of Emma Montague in last year’s Royal College of Art show. Here we have a young designer taking and blending materials that have been historically used to make spectacle frames – acetate, bone and horn – and using them to great effect in expressing abstract ideas within a practical and beautiful form.

So if you ask me what I like within my collection, a jaw bone frame would currently be pretty high on the list.

TTFN
Deadman