Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2016
The history and current observational status of the giant gravitational lens candidate 1146+111B,C are reviewed. In the absence of any new positive evidence and in the presence of reported differences in the UV and IR spectra of B and C, the lens hypothesis is clearly much weaker than previously. Nevertheless, given the substantial similarity of the spectra over a broad range of wavelengths, discrepancies among various spectroscopic observations of C, and the possibility of spectral variability plus large differential time delays, the data do not yet support any definite conclusion as to the nature of 1146+111B,C.