large lenses for exhibition

surdo

Hello,

I am an artist looking for advice on lenses for a project that will simulate 18th and 19th "peep-show" or "Rarekiek" boxes. See for example:

http://www.loeb-larocque.com/optica.php#peep

I wish to either source lenses directly or if the price is not too prohibitive, have a number of them made.

Traditionally these peep-show boxes (esp. the Dutch Rarekiek boxes) often used large-diameter double-convex lenses for viewing with two eyes. The lenses had low dioptre to enable the viewer to focus on an image at the rear of the box.

A feature of these lenses is that they gave a type of 3D effect when looking at coloured images. It's my understanding this occured because of chromatic aberration in the lens - that is, causing the focal planes of the various colours not to coincide - consequently some colours, reds for example, appeared to "float" in relation to other colours.

So given that, the lens I'm after should be a very simple one i think, one that doesn't attempt to correct for chromatic aberration as I gather most sophisticated lenses do.

Am I correct in my guesses? Can anyone please suggest a good way forward for me? For example where to source such lenses from or where to have them made.

Many thanks,

Iain