Rare Early Cape Silver? Spectacles (c.1780-1830)

This wonderful pair of rare, sterling silver, folding, framed spectacles with oval lenses, feature hinged arms that fold-out and downward behind the ears, to stop the glasses falling off whilst reading or writing. I’ve done a fair amount of research on these since listing them and I’m now of the opinion that they were possibly made in the Cape in the late 1700’s. This type or style of frames were used between 1780-1830 and are stamped on the inside of each arm with a single British hallmark of a ‘Lion Passant’, officially known as the British ‘Standard Mark’ for sterling silver (.925 purity) and the word ‘PEBBLES’ next to it. Normally an English made piece of silver would have other hallmarks with it (date letter & town mark). I’ve come across a few Cape silversmiths who also used this lion stamp, two of which are very similar, Daniel Collinet and John Townsend. I’ve also come across a very similar pair of spectacles made by a Cape silversmith. These scarce eyeglasses are in excellent condition and come with their, possibly original case, which has a gilt stamped name underneath that reads ‘OPTICAL CHEMIST, G. Michaels, CHURCH STREET, ROBERTSON’.