C. W. Ottaway Stanhope Ring, Mablethorpe, c.1920s

A small novelty ring containing a Stanhope lens, through which a hidden photographic image can be viewed. The tiny lens is incorporated into the ring so that the image is concealed until it is held close to the eye and viewed towards a light source. In this example, the hidden image is an unclothed female figure.

The ring is associated with C. W. Ottaway, a watchmaker, jeweller and silversmith who traded in Mablethorpe and Alford, Lincolnshire. An accompanying box bears his name and gives the addresses as High Street, Mablethorpe, and Market Place, Alford. The box is assumed to belong with the ring, although this cannot be established with certainty.

Contemporary evidence places Ottaway's Alford business in the 1920s. A 1926 trade directory records C. W. Ottaway, watchmaker, Market Place, Alford, corresponding with the address printed on the accompanying box. His 1938 obituary states that he had been in business in Mablethorpe for about a quarter of a century and had also conducted a similar business in Alford for a few years.

The ring is dated c.1920s. It is a particularly intriguing survivor of the period: a small piece of novelty jewellery that combines a concealed image with a direct connection to two local Lincolnshire businesses. It offers a glimpse not only of the fashions and amusements of the period, but also of the everyday trade of Mablethorpe and Alford in the early twentieth century.