What's It Wednesdays: I spy with my little eye . . .
How to discreetly spy on your neighbors at the theater.
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“I spy with my little eye . . .”
Imagine you’re at the theater to see a play and all around the audience you see men peering at each other through spyglasses. Popular in the 1700s, this rather disconcerting and blatant public voyeurism fell out of favor by the early 1800s.
Rather than ceasing to spy on their neighbors, new more discrete devices were developed. Spyglasses and mirrors were set into scent bottles, snuffboxes, and of course, fans.
Spy fans allowed a lady the opportunity to inconspicuously hide behind her fan while keeping an eye on other audience members.
These two spy fans in the History Center’s collection are affixed with mirrors that would afford a lady the opportunity to discretely look behind her.
The above fan has the mirror set on the decorative side of one of the end sticks. Because the decorative side would be faced away from the user, this fan would be used when closed, held up to surreptitiously check out the scene behind her.
The above fan is double-sided, so the user could discretely spy with her fan open or closed.
More elaborate spy fans included lenses, either single or multiple, inserted into the pivot point or along the sticks. Multiple lenses meant you could get a better look at your fellow theater-goers.
Let the theater spying begin!
How about you? When you go to the theater, or opera, or a concert, do you check out who’s there? Have you heard of spy fans? I hadn’t until History Center Collections Manager Angela McBrien showed these to us.
Thanks for reading!
~Elaine
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“I spy with my little eye,” the earliest mention found of the I Spy game was from Victorian England and appeared in The Manchester Times of 1889.
Spy fans are new to me. I thought that Everyone people-watched until the theater lights dimmed
Well that is simply hysterical! Brings new definition to "fan of the theater"