"Cultivating a Love of Lover's Eyes"
by Eve Kahn

Dr. David Skier and his wife, Nan, keep a safe full of disembodied eyes painted on ivory, known to connoisseurs as “lover’s eyes.” The couple, in Birmingham, Ala., have acquired about 100 in the past two decades, mostly made in Europe around 1800 and depicting unknown sitters.

The fragile watercolors cannot withstand moisture, strong sun or any hard knocks. The Skiers gingerly study them in storage.

“We do look at them all the time,” Dr. Skier (pronounced SKY-er), an eye surgeon, said in a phone interview. They were drawn to the objects at first because of his professional interest in vision, he explained, but as the collection grew,

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