Stanhope Peepers Charles Stanhope, the 3rd Earl of Stanhope, was a politician and a scientist. Born in 1753, he invented a printing press, various calculating machines, and the lens which is named after him. Based on a small cylindrical glass rod, convex at one end and flat at the other, the lens will greatly magnify any transparent object that is placed on the flat surface and viewed through the other end. Used ori ginally as a microscope lens, it found a new use after the invention of photomicrography in 1853, in the tiny trinkets and souvenirs which came to be known as "Stanhopes." The earliest Stanhopes were rings and brooches, but from the 1860s until into the 20th century, a great variety of objects containing these tiny photographs were made. Keys with Stanhope peepers are extremely rare, and particularly those with erotic scenes, as in the present lot.