French OPERA Glasses. Manufactured by “LE MAIRE FABI” Paris. These are extra fancy with mother of pearl panels covering the brass body. The center focus wheel is also mother of pearl, as are the eyepiece covers. Each eyepiece cover is marked “LE MAIRE FABI” and “PARIS” with two “Bee” logos. All exposed brass work is gold gilt. There is loss of this thin gilt on the eyepiece barrels and on the focus shift. The gilted brass plate which holds the small ends of the binocular barrels id engraved “MADE IN FRANCE” and the “Bee” logo. The semi soft leather case is sateen lined, and the brass case opening button exhibits the “Bee” logo. These focus smoothly when held in a horizontal position. When held and focused vertically the focus function will bind. Opera glasses and theater glasses use Galilean optics. That is to say they use a concave eyepiece lens and a convex objective lens mounted in-line to produce an inexpensive and simple low power magnified image by direct transmission, but which is correctly oriented due to the combination of lenses. They do not use prisms. The eyepiece (ocular lens) is in line with the last (objective) lens. The performance is inferior to prism binoculars, and the magnification normally low. This pair of French Opera Glasses is over the top in decorative quality. The optics are clear and appear to be 1.5 Power magnification. Beautiful to look at, look through, and handle. Price: $85.00 (ref. B-516)