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Knife
World Magazine
'Stanhopeless No More '©
by HOWARD MELNICK
December 2001 -- (pictures not yet available)
It all began for me in July 1984, with the purchase of an Anheuser Busch
knife with a “peephole” for $45.00. It turned out to be one of the lesser
common examples of the perhaps sixty-plus varieties known today; a nickel
silver champagne pattern with two Stanhopes. The first was a portrait of
Adolphus Busch, the second a factory picture. At the time, I didn’t know
that microphotos were called Stanhopes and only thought they came in
knives. Shortly after the realization that these things come in many
forms, the search for information about them began. Needless to say, there
was little available. A few pages in a needlepoint book, an occasional
article in an antique journal, calls to the Smithsonian and a referral to
Eastman House started to bring it all into sharper focus.
The story actually began in 1839 when an already well-known scientist,
John Benjamin Dancer, made the first microphotograph at a 160X reduction.
By 1852, he used collodion for the microfilms which allowed for much
clearer resolution. Shortly thereafter, there were heated debates from
others claiming to be the first microphotographer, but Dancer defends his
position adequately.
His microfilms are placed on glass slides to be viewed via a microscope.
Dancer was an optical craftsman, built fine microscopes and invented the
stereoscopic camera. He presented several examples of his slides to Sir
David Brewster in 1856. Sir David, a Scottish physicist, was well known as
the inventor of the kaleidoscope. He was quite taken with Dancer’s
microphotos and often displayed them in his travels to the continent. He
used a Coddington or “Brewster” lens to show them off. This was a
Plano-convex handheld lens whose focal length was the length of the
overall lens, thereby greatly magnifying anything applied to its flat end.
The microphotos, essentially invisible to the naked eye, were clearly seen
this way. Presumably, it was cumbersome to carry a standard microscope
around to view the slides.
Sometime in 1856 or 1857, Brewster showed Dancer’s microfilms in Italy and
France while suggesting their use in jewelry, trinkets and for espionage
purposes. There had already been consideration for microfilming of
archives on a commercial basis. Rene Dagron, a portrait photographer in
Paris, upon seeing Dancer’s microfilms, was apparently greatly impressed.
He is credited with receiving the world’s first microfilm patent in 1858.
He is likely the first photographer to actually market the microphotos in
objects other than slides. Using a tiny Coddington magnifier, he put them
into rings, brooches, charms, dip pens, etc. He calls the lens in photo a
Stanhope, though this is a misnomer. A true Stanhope lens is a biconvex
lens used as a field microscope for naturalists and designed by the third
Earl of Stanhope in the 1700's. He too, evidently was a prolific inventor
of a wide variety of objects including Stanhope carriages. These obviously
have nothing to do with photography. In fact, photography did not exist in
the Earl’s lifetime.
Though certainly not the only microphotographer in Paris, Dagron was
seemingly the most active. He filed for several patents after his first
and went to court to defend them. He held them in France, Britain and the
U.S. By 1864 he had published several treatises on “photographie
microscopique.” Interestingly, a German publication at the time complained
of obscene microfilms flooding the market. This is not to imply Dagron was
necessarily responsible but mentioned as an observation on human behavior.
One suspects the first nude photo was probably taken rather shortly after
the advent of photography itself. Of the known surviving signed Dagron
Stanhopes, perhaps less than half would be considered erotic, none
obscene. Generally, the pictures are extremely detailed, well contrasted,
and highly collectible.
Dagron’s notoriety is likely how and why he ended up contracting with the
exiled French government during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870 to 1871.
July 19,1870, Napoleon III declared war on Prussia, was ill-prepared for
the conflict and surrendered 100,000 men at Sedan by September 1. Paris
didn’t capitulate and closed its gates to the outside world September 18,
only to finally yield January 28, 1871 after five months of siege. Being
little better off than the rest of France, the populace experienced
rampant inflation, horrible privations, and was starved for both food and
news of the outside world. For food, the wealthy consumed the zoo animals,
the less well off made due with dogs and rats. To solve the latter
problem, almost daily hot air balloons left Paris and risked small arms
and rocket fire to escape. They brought out microphotographic equipment
and chemicals along with carrier pigeons to fly the messages back into the
city. Evidently, Parisians were good about not eating the homing pigeons.
Highly organized and reasonably successful, Dagron and his “Pigeon Post”
delivered 115,000 messages to news-starved Paris by the time the war
ended.
Paris was to remain the Stanhope capital of the world for quite some time.
Dagron continued his output, would make custom microphotos on request and
sold all the equipment and supplies to allow anyone to be a producer. This
of course has contributed to a virtually endless list of items holding the
Stanhopes and of subject matter as well. Objects vary from countless
charms, pens, pencils, smoking items, sewing tools, jewelry, letter
openers, canes and pocketknives. Subjects range from religious, worlds’
fairs and expos, vacation spots, monuments, advertising, erotica and
rarely pornography. Stanhope rings with risque photos are documented to
have been carried by soldiers in the American Civil War.
The earliest documented knife with a Stanhope was 1865. It was discovered
by Mark Zalesky at the Bertrand Museum in Missouri in the mid 1990's. The
Bertrand was a paddle-wheeler sunk in 1865 and salvaged in 1969. Not until
Mark’s visit were the caretakers aware that their knives with “glass
rivets” were actually Stanhopes. The careful observer who catalogued them
noted that one side of the glass was rounded, the other flat. Never
holding it up to his eye and looking to the light, the pictures were never
discovered until Mark showed them. Unfortunately, some of the pictures
were lost either from being buried in mud for over 100 years or from the
muriatic acid used to clean them. Believe it or not, the surviving
microfilms were two to a knife and all of couples engaged in sexual
activities. Joseph Rodgers is on the tang stamps of these four-bladed
knives handled in pearl, ivory or tortoise.
Though most Stanhopes seemed to have been produced in France and later
Czechoslovakia until the late 1970's, most knives appear to be of German
manufacture. Those listed as U.S. seem likely to be contract knives. A.
Kastor and later Camillus made many of the American ones, however, they
may have been produced in Germany. These include several of the Busch
knives, Robert, Johnson & Rand Shoe Company, Blanke’s Tea & Coffee
Company, and Banner Buggy knives. They are all of St. Louis firms in
business around the turn of the past century.
There are a multitude of pen knives and whittlers with tang stamps like
Weibusch, Hilger, Boker, Eagle, Brown, Black, Adolphus Cutlery, A. Kastor,
N. Kastor, Clarks, Irving Cutlery and Palmax. Many of the Palmax are
marked Souvenir of Habana (Spanish for Havana). They were all celluloid
pencil knives with nudes in their Stanhopes. The photos are numbered into
the 300's, several sequentially with the same three models in various
poses. There are also non-stanhope Palmax pencil knives. They never had
Stanhopes and are less common and frequently advertise Canada. There is
one of the Niagara Falls with a Stanhope and one of Bermuda, also with a
Stanhope. The vast majority of the Stanhope pencil knives come from Cuba.
It must have been a wild place to visit.
Another group of knives generally with women, this time figural legs,
usually have actress-type of photos. They are fairly common, most with the
Stanhope in the blade pivot; a few at the other end in the metal boot.
Other figurals include a rifle pencil knife, a sleeping hog and a fish of
English, French and German manufacture respectively.
Several of the knives were advertising pieces, have three blades including
a file, stamped either A. Fiest/LUNA/or Small Brothers. They are both of
German manufacture and in sterling. One is deco with elongated diamond
designs, the other has a more floral pattern with “New York Life Insurance
Company” stamped into the handle. The Stanhope shows a skyscraper and
asks, "Do you own part of this building...if not why not?”
Most common, most collected and most expensive are the Anheuser Busch
knives. They are most common only in the huge numbers given out; first by
Adolphus as a calling card, and later from the company as promotional or
advertising incentives. There are several different knife patterns, some
with files, buttonhooks, or spatulas, but the majority are champagne
knives. Of the latter, most of these are red, black and gold enamel, but
some have blue, green or even yellow for the hops and barley on the
backside of the knife. Others have pearl or ivory, brass or nickel scales.
One of the nickel knives with the factory on the reverse side and one of
the pearl champagnes knives each have two Stanhopes. The pictures are
generally photos or portraits of Adolphus; some young, some old, some
sitting, others standing. Additionally, there is the factory picture
indicating “Anheuser Busch Brewing Association Highest Scored Award
World’s Fair 1893.” There may be a variation with a woman’s photo referred
to in a letter to Kastor felt perhaps to be Mrs. Busch.
Fortunately, Anheuser Busch Brewing Association has kept and shared
records regarding the knives. Letters discuss the pictures, handles,
quantity and quality. Not surprisingly, Adolphus wanted to inspect several
of each type before multiple dozens were put into production. Apparently,
in the knife with “the woman’s picture,” the backsprings were too tight.
Adolphus and Mr. Kastor were friends and not all the letters were all
business. After covering the mundane stuff, Adolphus reminds Mr. Kastor
about a bet over the arrival time of a ship. Evidently, Adolphus won the
bet and suggests that Adolph Kastor let his son know he was wrong so that
he doesn’t “think his father is infallible.” The Busch’s spent significant
time at least on a monthly basis in Germany. In 1904, ocean travel was the
only transportation to and from Europe. Perhaps the bet had to do with
when the Busch’s arrived in New York Harbor from a trip abroad.
1904 also provided opportunity for additional Stanhope knives. It was the
Louisiana Purchase Exposition, better known as the St. Louis World’s Fair.
J. Dixon produced both a three blade with corkscrew and four blade equal
end aluminum knife with Stanhopes. Aluminum was still an expensive metal
at the time. The Stanhopes were scenes from the fair. Earlier, the Paris
1889 Expo, which introduced the Eiffel Tower to the world, had pressed
horn figural knives of the tower with Stanhopes of Paris or Mr. Eiffel and
his tower. The latter Stanhope compares the 300 meter height of the tower
with other world landmarks. Evidently, there exists four variations of the
knives themselves. Again in Paris, this time the 1900 Expo, yielded
another figural knife in the shape of a nail. It is made of aluminum and
stamped “Le Clou de Exposition.” This was felt to be a play on words as
clou can mean nail or souvenir. The last expo knife is also one of the
most interesting. It is a two blade celluloid equal end tang stamped
Syracuse Knife Company with the 1939 New York World’s Fair trylon and
perisphere on the handle. Under the Stanhope, which is a scene of the New
York Skyline and Harbor embossed and inked in the celluloid, it reads “Air
View New York Skyline” with an arrow pointing to the Stanhope. It is the
only item in the entire collection that is an obvious Stanhope or
peephole.
As the lens only measures about 2 to 3 millimeters in diameter and 6 to 8
millimeters in length, they are easy to miss. In fact, much of their
allure is their subtle nature. In that little piece of glass, there is a
secret surprise waiting to be seen! What’s it going to be - multi-views of
the U.K., Niagara Falls, the Lord’s Prayer or some famous person? All too
commonly, unfortunately, the item is Stanhopeless e.g. the picture or the
entire lens is gone. The microphotos started as multiple microdots on an
oversized glass slide. They were produced via a reducing camera using
several microscope objectives as its lens. The photos were then cut into
tiny squares using a diamond stylus and glued to the flat end of the
magnifying lens with Canada Balsam. They were then ground round and glued
into place in their carrier; dip pen, pocketknife, jewelry, etc.
Considering the whole deal is made of glass, some well over 100 years old,
it is not too surprising that some are lost. The knives meant to be used
are often found empty or pictureless. If present, often pictures are hard
to see due to bubbling of the balsam.
For years, Stanhopeless items were destined to remain vacant. At best, one
might transfer a Stanhope from one item to another. This was at the risk
of the picture falling off the magnifier and limited by the picture
itself. Obviously, an Anheuser Busch knife should have a picture of
Adolphus for a proper restoration, thereby, multi-views of Niagara Falls
won’t do.
Stanhopes were produced at least as late as 1976 for the Bicentennial. It
was a Liberty Bell charm with a microphoto of the bell itself dated 1776
to 1976. Why these collectibles disappeared thereafter is an enigma.
Review of sample pages from the last producing Czechoslovakian factory
revealed the pictures to be of poor quality and not uncommonly of a
primarily religious nature. Perhaps in the radical 70's, their allure
faded. Stanhope production ceased in the late 70's, and the Czech.
factories shifted to making glass chandeliers. Czechoslovakia has been
well known for its glass and crystal manufacture. Political prisoners
provided cheap labor. With communism unraveling itself, lack of this
workforce may also have contributed to the Stanhope’s demise. Obviously,
the Iron Curtain didn’t fall until 1990, so it is difficult to determine
if these factors were involved or not.
Regardless, whatever the reason or reasons, Stanhopes were gone. The story
doesn’t end there however. In 1993, a violin maker in Mechanicsburg,
Pennsylvania, had an introduction to Stanhopes. It turned out to be an
epiphany. Pamela Frank, a world renowned violinist, was in Harrisburg
playing with the symphony. While consulting with Mike Sheibley for a
violin repair, she showed him a “picture bow.” Mike was absolutely, as he
puts it, “blown away.” After some research into bows, it turns out that
occasionally famous French and German bow makers embellished their final
product with a Stanhope picture of themselves or the great composers. The
very evening of seeing his first “picture bow” as musicians refer to them,
Mike decided he needed to reproduce them.
After years of planning and two years of development, Mike has managed to
do what he decided that fateful night - makes Stanhopes! Though actually
of three components, the magnifier, film and window covering the back end,
once installed, they are virtually identical to the old two piece ones.
Modern photographic techniques and glues have contributed to Stanhopes of
sharper detail and clearer resolution than many of the originals. The
inability of one to discern a new from an old Stanhope of course creates
understandable consternation among collectors. Mike thereby marks his
creations SMW for Stanhope MicroWorks. We as collectors, especially the
purists among us, prefer our items to be all original. However, when that
option no longer exists, a quality appropriate replacement is a good
alternative. Debate reigns whether this is truly a restoration or a
repair. So long as it contains appropriate markings and hence no chance to
defraud, personally I would rather have the empty hole filled than it be
Stanhopeless.
The new lens seems to hold the same fascination, the same expectation of
surprise. There exists other modern optical novelties such as the Franklin
Mint Playboy knives. Though not true Stanhopes, these single blade lock
back knives show a color miniature photo of Playboy centerfolds, the lens
a separate acrylic disc with air between it and the picture. Sometime in
the 1980's and 90's, a British company, Woodsetton, produced “peeps.” In
the antique trade, peeps, peepers or peepholes are used interchangeably in
referring to Stanhopes. These peeps were found in thimbles, wax seals and
other small items. The magnifiers were plastic or acrylic and flat on both
ends. They enlarge the tiny photo via concentric circular ridges in the
top surface of the cylinder. This is called a fresnel lens and is a
miniature version of a giant lighthouse lens used for the same purpose
e.g. magnification. Regardless, though Woodsetton had its followers, it is
now out of business. Stanhope collectors generally didn’t pursue them
other than perhaps to have a single representative example. Somehow these
peeps just don’t have the same “neat factor” that true Stanhopes offer.
The new SMW ones have it!
.
Actually, other than for repairs of Stanhopeless items, Stanhope
Microworks is targeting new collectors, not old ones. The plan is to
develop new markets in knives and other collectibles. The ability to
customize is a very exciting prospect. Just as Dagron offered over a 100
years ago, one can now have his family’s picture put in the object of his
or her choice. In today’s marketing, brand recognition plays an all
important role to the consumer. Adolphus Busch seemed to think so. His
Budweiser was not only the king of beers, but his company was the king of
advertising memorabilia. |
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