Rochard, Antoine Edmond (French, b. 1836)

Rochard, born in 1836 in Paris, the godson of jewelry maker, Barthelemy Legentil with whom he likely apprenticed, was intrigued, not only by jewelry design, but also by micro-photography. In 1868 he patented a design concerning a system for placing Stanhopes (micro-photographs) in the breastplate and throat of a doll. His logic was simple: the tiny, tiny micro-photographs (about 1-1.4 mm) were to be incorporated with an optical viewing lens which magnified the image about 160 times, making them visible when held closely to the eye. The system was inventive (possibly spurred by the creative fever that swept France during the 1867 International Exposition), but also very costly and time-laborious and therefore short-lived.