Antique French Wood Crucifix with Silver-Tone Corpus and Stanhope Peep Lens, Circa 1890s-1930s

Dark-stained wooden crucifix with a cast silver-tone corpus, INRI title scroll and footrest. Set into the foot of the cross is a tiny Stanhope lens in a lettered brass ring, a hidden viewer that reveals a microscopic photograph when held close to the eye and turned toward a light.

The Stanhope was invented in Paris in 1857 by the photographer René Dagron, who mounted microphotographs on the end of a minute glass lens that magnified them some 300 times without a microscope. His factory was soon producing thousands a day, and they became a favorite of the devotional souvenir trade. Crucifixes, rosaries and medals sold at shrines such as Lourdes, Rome and Paris hid images of the shrine, holy figures or the full text of a prayer inside the lens.

Shows wear consistent with age; the INRI scroll is slightly bent.