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Sunglasses - Tennis Racket

Tennis Racket

  • Object:

    Sunglasses

  • Place of origin:

    Great Britain (made)

  • Date:

    1985 (made)

  • Artist/Maker:

    Oliver Goldsmith Eyewear (manufacturer)

  • Materials and Techniques:

    Etched plastic

  • Credit Line:

    Given by A. Oliver Goldsmith, in memory of his father, Charles Oliver Goldsmith

  • Museum number:

    T.245A-1990

  • Gallery location:

    In Storage

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 making glasses 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.

A Oliver Goldsmith created this sunglasses frame, titled ‘Tennis Racket’, in 1985, as a re-design of T.243 E-1990, the original tennis racket design from 1956. This frame reflects fashion’s enthusiasm for a black and white palette. They were sold with two pairs of lenses: one etched with a pattern of tennis strings, the other plain.This design is also housed in the collection of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum.

Physical description

Black and white plastic sunglasses framed with eye pieces shaped like a pair of tennis rackets. Glass surface etched in the pattern of tennis racket strings.

Place of Origin

Great Britain (made)

Date

1985 (made)

Artist/maker

Oliver Goldsmith Eyewear (manufacturer)

Materials and Techniques

Etched plastic

Dimensions

Height: 9 cm, Width: 16 cm

Object history note

Registered File number 1990/200.
These glasses form part of a design archive of the British eyewear company Oliver Goldsmith. The archive, which consists of approximately 70 glasses frames from the 1930s to the late 1980s, was donated by A. Oliver Goldsmith, grandson of the founder, and former chief designer at the firm. A. Oliver Goldsmith donated the material to the V & A in memory of his father Charles Goldsmith.

Descriptive line

Plastic sunglasses 'Tennis Racket' with eye pieces shaped like a pair of tennis rackets, made by Oliver Goldsmith Eyewear, Great Britain, 1985

Materials

Plastic

Techniques

Etched

Subjects depicted

Tennis racquet

Categories

Plastic; Accessories; Fashion; Europeana Fashion Project; Eyewear

Collection

Textiles and Fashion Collection

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