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Keep an eye out for these! Morticians' eye caps

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    Posted 7 years ago

    Pencil-nec…
    (104 items)

    Here's a little grotesquerie for ya! These clear 'contacts' were (are) used by undertakers to make sunken eyes look more natural after death, whether by time or missing eyeballs or contemporary cornea harvest post-mortum. The coin in the first pic is a nickel used for scale. The little black rubber gizmo is actually a suction cup to hold the cap during placement. Still supple and airtight after who-knows-how-long!

    I do love the weird stuff. Now, if I could just figure out what catagory to put it in....

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    Comments

    1. swampdogg swampdogg, 7 years ago
      yeah weird as hell but but thats why i love this site you learn things from all these collectibles great find pencil-nec
    2. fortapache fortapache, 7 years ago
      Probably helped for those post mortem photos where the deceased had open eyes.
    3. Pencil-necked-geek Pencil-necked-geek, 7 years ago
      OK.... I'm wrong. These are NOT morticians' eye caps. They are actually pre-1950 contact lenses! They are made of rigid blown glass with dimple in the center that was filled with a saline solution. By all accounts, only wearable for a couple of hours - and that assumes you could live with the bug-eyed look they provided!

      Sorry about the error - but they still DO look like the mortician eye caps I thought they were.
    4. SpiritBear, 7 years ago
      I'd never put those on my eyes.
    5. Celiene Celiene, 7 years ago
      They hurt my eyes just looking at them!
    6. Pencil-necked-geek Pencil-necked-geek, 7 years ago
      What prices we pay for vanity, huh Celiene?
    7. surfdub66 surfdub66, 7 years ago
      My father used to wear contacts just like these !!
      I can remember them from when i was a youngster.. huge things that gave him caterax!!
      He had laser eye surgery and just wore glasses every now and then for reading & driving!!
      Horrible things!!
    8. fhrjr2 fhrjr2, 7 years ago
      Speaking of eyes and morticians. I recall an old saying passed along from the old country. He would steal the pennies off a dead mans eyes.

      You can look the expression up easily. During the depression and before, coins were placed on a dead person's eye lids to keep them shut as rigor mortise set in.

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