From: The Friend

From: The Friend, published by The Friend, 1904. vol. 77. p. 182:

How Thimbles Are Made.—A silver thimble is a very small thing, but it takes more than twenty men, besides a good deal of costly machinery, to make one. In the first place, the silver, which comes to the factory in bars, is passed through great steel rollers, which rolls it into sheets so thin that it would take twenty of them to make an inch high. The sheets are cut into strips about two inches wide, that look like silver ribbons, and out of them another machine punches round pieces, about as large as a silver half dollar. These round pieces, or blanks, as they are called, are next fed one by one to a machine which turns up the edge all around to make the rim, and are then put into a press, where a steel die comes down with a smash, and gives the thimble its proper form all at once. It is now of the right shape, but it is smooth, and has no dents in its top. To make these, the thimble is put into a lathe, and while it is whirling round, a workman, who sits in front of the lathe with a tool shaped like a hammer, puts a dent in the middle of the top, then a ring of dents round it, then another ring, and so on until all the dents are in. The thimble is then polished, has a number marked on it, and has the border of leaves or figures, usually seen on thimbles, engraved or stamped round its base.

Gold thimbles are made of steel, and have only a thin coating of gold on them. They are made in much the same way, as are also brass and steel thimbles;but brass and steel thimbles are sometimes made without any tops. Thimbles are also made out of hard India rubber, and sometimes even out of ivory and china, Thimbles have been in use only about two hundred years. It is not known who first made them, though some think they came from Holland.— Selected.

Thank Heaven for industrious dames. . .

Boston Investigator, 10 Dec 1873;
pg. 3; Issue 33; col E.

An Armour-Plated Thimble

Cassell's Family Magazine
Cassell & Company, Limited. 1886.

They laughed when I bought thimbles instead of real estate.

Antique Sterling Filigree Tape Measure, Thimble, and Perfume Bottle.
English, ca. 1790-1800; excellent condition.
US$946.00; 18 bids, starting at US$56.88.
1 June 2009.
From Elegant Arts Antiques.


Antique French Sterling Silver Fable Thimble
"Three Birds on a Branch" design, ca. 1900, "thought to be the work of designer Firmin-Pierre Lasserre." Mint Condition.
US$363.89; 19 bids, starting at US$9.00.
1 June 2009.
Another item from Elegant Arts Antiques
Silver Souvenir Thimble of the Steamship President Lincoln.
Most likely German, ca. 1901-1917. Damaged enamelling, glass cap.
US$223.50; 12 bids, starting at US$25.00.
8 June 2009.

Silver Souvenirs on wBay

Sterling Silver Ketcham & McDougall Florida Souvenir Thimble
Size 8, in round, no holes.
US$367.79; 13 bids, starting at US$13.00.
19 May 2009
Sterling Silver Ketcham & McDougall Adirondack Mts. Souvenir Thimble
US$611.01; 12 bids, starting at $25.00.
7 May 2009

Nameless Breakfast Food?

Advertisement for Liberty Pure Food Co.
Good Housekeeping Magazine
December 1901

The Employments of Women

From: Penny, Virginia, The Employments of Women: A Cyclopaedia of Woman's Work, (Boston : Walker, Wise and Co. 1863) p. 236:

238. Thimbles. P. was kind enough to make an entire silver thimble, that I might see the process. The whole of the work could bo done by women, but no women in any country are employed at it, so far as he knows. I was told by one or two other thimble makers, that no women are ever employed in that branch of business. It is usual for a boy to serve an apprenticeship of four years. While doing some parts of the labor the workers sit, and while doing other parts they stand. The polishing is done on a lathe, and there is not enough of it to furnish work for a separate person, except in very large establishments, and even then it is so connected with the other processes that it could not be well divided. There are not so many thimbles sold now as formerly, because of the sewing machines that are used. There are not more than from eight to twelve thimble makers in the United States. There are none South or West of Philadelphia.

Thimble Tart

No. "Thimble Tart" is not my new nom de blog.
I found this recipe for Thimble Tarts on a newly-found, scrumptious blog called Cherry on a Cake. The photo on the site is even more mouth-watering. Yummy.

A Thimble for Mother Lindbergh

In an appendix to the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, The Spirit of St. Louis, by Charles A. Lindbergh, it mentions that one of the gifts bestowed upon Lindbergh after his famous flight was a "Gold thimble, set with diamonds, for Col. Lindbergh's mother, from the children of Patchogue (New York)."