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Butterfly
Oliver Goldsmith Eyewear - Enlarge image
Butterfly
- Object:
Sunglasses
- Place of origin:
Great Britain, UK (made)
- Date:
1962 (made)
- Artist/Maker:
Oliver Goldsmith Eyewear (manufacturer)
- Materials and Techniques:
Painted plastic and acetate
- Credit Line:
Given by A. Oliver Goldsmith, in memory of his father, Charles Oliver Goldsmith
- Museum number:
T.243I-1990
- Gallery location:
In store
The eyewear firm Oliver Goldsmith created this glasses frame, titled ‘Butterfly’, in 1962. Philip Oliver Goldsmith, a salesman for a small optical firm, founded this eyewear company in London in 1926. In 1935 his son Charles Goldsmith entered the firm with the aim of transforming glasses from a medical necessity to a fashion item. From the company’s offices in Poland Street, his sons A. Oliver and Ray Goldsmith built upon the company’s reputation for attention-grabbing designs and solicited celebrity endorsement for their products. Key clients included Lord Snowdon, the actress Diana Dors, Princess Grace of Monaco and Diana, Princess of Wales.
In the early 1960s Charles Oliver Goldsmith was experimenting with different uses for unsold sunglasses. He created a range of pictorial frames which included 'Butterfly' and another called ‘Music Notes’ (T.243J-1990). He showed 'Butterfly' first to Harrods, the London department store, who placed orders. The design was painted by hand and was sold with either red or blue accents.
