Saddle Bridge Glasses

Rimless eyeglasses were introduced in 1880 and remained popular to the 1950’s. Early rimless eyeglasses, made between 1880 and 1920 did not have nose pads. Rather they used a saddle bridge and were thus referred to sometimes as saddle bridge glasses. The horse was the primary means of transportation. Rimless oval shaped eyeglasses were a variant of a style called Riding Temple. Early rimless saddle bridge glasses were designed to fit close to the face.

Rimless eyeglasses with nose pad was introduced in 1921. The nose pad allowed the lens to set further away from the face. Also, frames could be made larger because less people were using a horse for primary transportation. Thus saddle bridge glasses largely fell out favor.