Yet Another Collection

My grandmother always kept a bottle of Eyebright Herb Powder and a couple of eye cups in her bathroom. The box said to rinse your eyes daily with the mixture and your eyes would be bright and have a healthy sparkle to them.

My sister and her friend made eye washing part of their Saturday night ritual when getting ready for the movies. They would pinch their cheeks to make them have a healthy rosy glow, add red food coloring to their lips and a dab of baby oil in the center of them to make them look pouty. Then, they would choose just the right clothes to wear. In the 1950s, really, the only choices to make would be which style of shirt and whether to wear saddle shoes or penny loafers. This was the norm--but grandmother always insisted that the penny be replaced with a dime, just in case we needed to call home! I never used the eye cups after watching Sis scream while using the mixture and after her eyes turned red. After that, eye washes were with plain water. I aquired my grandmother's eye cup after our family estate auction in 1993. That was the start of this collection.




This is a two-piece eye cup with a removable metal cup. It is marked Lavoptik Eye Wash. It is a beautiful cobalt blue. I found this one at a yard sale, and the rest of my collection was purchased at antique stores in the next decades. I stopped the collection after I retired in 2003, although I still look for them when I go into Goodwill or the occasional antique store.




I think the one without the stem was my Grandmother's eye cup. This is my favorite collection out of the many things I've collected. I seem to dust them most often, anyway.

The cobalt blue cup has a gold trim around the top.

I'm not sure if any of the eye cups are valuable. They are small and don't take up much space, so I just keep them next to the small perfume bottle collection, the pill box collection, the brooch collection, button collection, teapot collection, and finally, a pinback collection!