Yummy thimble bracelet on eBay

This exceedingly yummy thimble "charm" bracelet is up for auction on eBay as I write this. The bracelet is not sterling silver but the thimbles are.
The auction ends March 6th, 2007, at 19:54:41 PST. The starting bid is set at US$199.99, and there's a BuyItNow price of US$349.99. Shipping is $5.00. There are closeups of the individual thimbles on the auction page. The thimbles appear to have been pierced to accommodate a silver loop to attach to bracelet. Ouch!
The bracelet was donated to the non-profit organization, Whiskers Rescue, Inc., "dedicated to humanely controlling the stray and feral cat over population."

Thimbleful to be auctioned at Bonhams

Bonhams, Knowle, UK

Sale 15179 - Silver and Plated Wares including Vesta Cases

27 Mar 2007, starting at 11:00
The Old House Station Road
Knowle, Solihull
West Midlands B93 0HT
Tel. 01564 776151 Fax. 01564 778069

"A Victorian novelty measure in the form of a thimble Maker's mark 'WGM', Birmingham, 1876, applied with the words, 'Just a thimbleful', height 6cm.
Estimate: £150 - 200"

Update: Sold for £210 (about US$421.88) plus premium and tax.

Plain & Thimble

Plain & Thimble is a line of toiletries/gift products from BlueQ. Shown above is the MiniKit which includes their Extra Fancy Soap, Stitchers Hand Cream, Lady-Like Lip Balm, plus a sewing kit and thimble. One may purchase the first three components separately.

They have several other lines of products. I want the Boss Lady Lunch Box. The Cat Butts Car Air Freshener I could probably do without. Or any of the Cat Butts stuff, really. Sort of Ha-Ha-Ha-Eeewww.

The products are available at the website and they have a "where to buy" page that will find the nearest retailer for you. Some other sites seem to have a better selection of the products: Sesto Senso, Fridgedoor.com, Sleepyheads.com, etc. Just Google/Froogle "Plain & Thimble." Prices vary a little from company to company.

Charlotte Brontë Thimble Case?

After considerable hunting, I still have not found a photograph of the Charlotte Brontë thimble. The closest I have come up with is this really small, blurry picture of what is supposedly her thimble case. Best I can do as yet.

Thimble Jellyfish

From: Field Guide to Venomous and Medically Important Invertebrates Affecting Military Operations
"The thimble jellyfish, Linuche unguiculata, is a small (~0.78 inch or 20 mm diameter) species widely distributed in the Caribbean. They have a distinct appearance and appear dark brown internally. Thimble jellyfish often occur in swarms of several thousand specimens, but isolated individuals are occasionally seen as well. They are distributed throughout the Caribbean and where they breed throughout the summer although populations tend to peak in May. Initial contact with thimble jellyfish is generally noted by a sensation of contact followed by mild irritation. Within a few days, the stings develop into an itchy, reddened rash on exposed areas of the body. Symptoms generally self-resolve and itching can be aided with antihistamines."

Hester Bateman Thimble sold on eBay.

"18th Century Silver Thimble by Hester Bateman" c 1780 Ex Dorothy Howell Collection, certified by Asprey Ltd.
US$1,682.87 ; 17 bids, starting at US$44.00.
17 February 2007.

Hello, Dali!

OK, I've heard that it's actually Dalí, not Dali, and pronounced with the accent on the second syllable. I don't know. But when I'm at work and near the Art section or the Buddhism section, I hear every idiot sing a little bit of "Hello, Dali!" or "Hello, Dalai!" and it gets tiresome. Seriously.
Anyway, this is the Melting Watch Thimble from the Salvador Dali Museum in Saint Petersburg, Florida. It's $8.95 plus S/H.

Our Lady's Thimble

Campanula rotundifolia. Bluebell. Harebell. Our Lady's Thimble.

The Legend: The bell-shaped flowers, resembling tiny thimbles, were named after the Virgin Mary to honor her working hands as she made Jesus' clothes, including the seamless robe He was wearing when He was crucified.

Source: Flowers of Our Lady & Mary Gardens

Ezra Prime

From: New York Times. New York, NY, February 20, 1898. p. 7:

Ezra C. Prime.
The funeral of Ezra C. Prime, who died on Thursday at the Long Island Home, in Amityville, will take place to-day in Huntington. Mr Prime was born in New York Dec. 20, 1810, and moved to Huntington in 1814 with his parents. When sixteen years old he was bound out to a thimble-maker, George W. Platt, uncle of United States Senator Thomas C. Platt, in New York.
After leaving the trade he formed a partnership with John Boshore and started in as a boss [boss?: sic] thimble manufacturer. In 1836 his health began to fail through too close application of his business. He decided to return to Huntington, and established a business in Huntington. At the time of his death he was the oldest thimble manufacturer in the United States, the business having been carried on during his absence from home by his sons.
Mr. Prime was an Abolitionist. He was twice married. In 1883, Mr. Prime's health giving out again, he sought a home at the Long Island Home, Amityville. He leaves a large estate, mostly real property.

Happy Presidents Day

This Presidents Park Logo Pewter Thimble is $4.95, plus S/H, and is available from Presidents Park, Williamsburg, VA.
Presidents Park is a big garden full of huge busts of all 43 Presidents of the United States.
Do not misunderstad me. I'm not anti-President. Not anti-the-current-one. Not anti-the-previous-one. God willing, not anti-any-of-the-future-ones. But, frankly, this park with the giant white heads perched everywhere: a little weird.

Basketball Hall of Fame

The NBA All-Star Game is tonight. This year it's being held in Las Vegas, a city with no NBA team. My dearest friend in all the world loves Las Vegas. She wants to get married there someday in one of those little chapels. I don't hate Las Vegas, but it is simply hotter than hell there, and not tolerable. When I was a little kid it seemed a lot more glamorous than it does now. Now: just kinda tacky. And freakin' hot.
This pewter thimble is available from the Basketball Hall of Fame website gift shop for only $6.50 plus S/H.

Sentimental Stitches

You can make this precious little thimble holder (both sides shown) with your very own hands. The pattern was designed by Louise Henderson of Cherished Stitches, and is available through Em-Li's ("Your Source for Fine Sampler Supplies"). There are four patterns available in the Sentimental Series: A Sentimental Thimble Case ($7.00); A Sentimental Needlebook ($10.00); A Sentimental Basket ($10.00); and A Sentimental Scissors Case with Fob ($12.00).

Cross stitchers should take time to explore Em-Li's website. The vintage designs are all affordable and very lovely.

Charlotte Brontë thimble to be displayed.

This was announced February 1st. I'm a bit late with it as I've been trying--to no avail--to find a photo of the thimble.

From: the Yorkshire Post
"A thimble used by the Brontë sisters in the 1840s will go on display today as a Yorkshire museum opens its doors for the first time this year.
"The item was discovered in a sewing box belonging to sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne and will now form part of an exhibition at the Brontë Parsonage Museum in Haworth.
"The thimble is part of a permanent display about the Brontë sisters which has been revamped for this year. And the museum is also hosting a new exhibition celebrating the 150th anniversary of Elizabeth Gaskell's biography: The Life of Charlotte Brontë. The exhibition runs until the end of the year and will include objects, personal belongings and letters not usually on display along with Mrs Gaskell's original handwritten manuscript on loan from Manchester University Library which will be at the museum for a short period.
"The museum's librarian, Ann Dinsdale, said: 'Mrs Gaskell met Charlotte Brontë late in life and they became friends. She developed a bit of an obsession with her and was more interested in the life of Charlotte Brontë than in her work. She was upset by criticisms of Charlotte's novels as containing coarseness and vulgarity and she wrote the biography to set the record straight.' " (John Roberts)

From: the Telegraph & Argus
"Brontë guardians are dusting down precious artefacts in preparation for the 2007 season at the Parsonage Museum in Haworth.
"Among items in a new exhibition will be a thimble and needlework box which were owned by Charlotte, author of Jane Eyre.
"Museum manager Alan Bentley said: 'The workbox was bought for the museum in 1933 but it has not been on display for some time. The thimble is interesting because it is so tiny and reflects how small Charlotte was - just 4 feet 11 inches.' "

From Jane Eyre:
Chapter 4
Long did the hours seem while I waited the departure of the company, and listened for the sound of Bessie's step on the stairs: sometimes she would come up in the interval to seek her thimble or her scissors, or perhaps to bring me something by way of supper--a bun or a cheese-cake--then she would sit on the bed while I ate it, and when I had finished, she would tuck the clothes round me, and twice she kissed me, and said, "Good night, Miss Jane."
Chapter 6
At first, being little accustomed to learn by heart, the lessons appeared to me both long and difficult; the frequent change from task to task, too, bewildered me; and I was glad when, about three o'clock in the afternoon, Miss Smith put into my hands a border of muslin two yards long, together with needle, thimble, &c., and sent me to sit in a quiet corner of the schoolroom, with directions to hem the same. At that hour most of the others were sewing likewise; but one class still stood round Miss Scatcherd's chair reading, and as all was quiet, the subject of their lessons could be heard, together with the manner in which each girl acquitted herself, and the animadversions or commendations of Miss Scatcherd on the performance.

Quick, Watson, the needle!

Did our friend Sherlock darn his own socks? Or leave it to Irene Adler?

This little pewter thimble is available for £3.00 (US$5.86), plus S/H, through Cluedunnit, a British website that specializes in murder parties. They have downloadable murders and "Box Murders" (parties-in-a-box with the clues and everything) for the do-it-yourselfer (party-giver, not murderer). They also host murder parties which can be bare-bones affairs or extravagant weekends for 25–100 of your nearest and dearest. They don't list prices for the parties, but I'm pretty certain I can just about afford the thimble.

Their pewter mementos all feature Sherlock Holmes.

Happy St. Valentine's Day.

Thimble available in goldtone or pewter from ADCO Hearing Products, Inc., for $8.95 plus S/H.

Recipe: Angel Food Cake

The High Rise Glorious Skittle Skat Roarious Sky Pie Angel Food Cake
1 c. cake flour
1½ c. white sugar
12 egg whites
1½ tsp. vanilla extract
1½ tsp. cream of tartar
1/2 tsp. salt

• Preheat oven to 375 °F.
• Sift together the flour and half (¾ c.) of the sugar; set aside.
• In a large bowl, whip the egg whites, vanilla, cream of tartar, and salt to medium-stiff peaks.
• Gradually add the remaining (¾ c.) sugar, continuing to whip to stiff peaks and maximum volume. (Whip lots and lots. Serious whippage.)
• Gradually fold sifted ingredients, one third at a time, into egg white/sugar peaks. Do not overmix.
• Spoon the batter into a 10-inch tube pan that is thoroughly clean and dry.
• Bake 40-45 min., 375 °F, until the cake springs back when touched. Balance tube pan on some kind of bottle (wine?) to cool cake. When cool, run a knife around the edge of the pan and invert onto a plate.

This is not the official recipe from the book.
What's the official recipe? Read the book.
Why is this in a thimble blog? Read the book.

Buckley's Thimble Cookies

Hooray for yummy cookies I don't have to make!
They come in four varieties: Lemon Almond, Key Lime Almond, Pecan Vanilla, and Orange Walnut.
I have found two online purveyors of these tasty morsels.
1. Greatergourmet.com. They're a little pricey. OK. Maybe a lot pricey. But you get a lot of cookies. Really. They come in 3.7 oz. packages and you have to buy a whole case of 24 packages for $76.80 plus $8.99 S/H. It's a lot of cookies. Really. Thimble cookies.
2. Golden Walnut. They have 9 oz. canisters of the four varieties for $6.25 each, plus S/H. They have a toll-free phone number if you're iffy about buying online.

Size Matters

These colorful rubber thimbles are available from, among other places, Craft Connection, whose price is $1.03-to-$2.19 plus S/H, depending on the desired size. They have other types of practical thimbles to make hand sewing easier on fingers, not to mention loads of other crafting stuff.

Not a thimble, part five.

See, here I was going to show first just the "thimble" hat, then show the picture of the whole totem pole with the hat. BUT the jpeg file is so darn small that the hat part would have been itsy-bitsy and just totally lame. SO, instead I'm showing the top of the pole. Still pretty lame. The real image is available on a CD (specifically, CDR-1225: Northwest Native Coast Art, from Saskia, Ltd.) through a company called Scholars Resource (no apostrophe anywhere on web page), which licenses high-quality digital images from art museums all over the world. They charge a one-time fee, which varies according to what images you want for whom. The original image on the website shows a harbor in the background, but I don't know where the actual totem pole is, though definitely from the North American Pacific Northwest.

Where was Barbara?

The thimble at left, available through the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum Store for a mere $4.95 plus S/H, is referred to on the website as the "George and Barbara Bush Collectible Thimble." Do you think they could they have shown the part of the thimble with Barbara? What better way to show that Bar is a Standin'-by-My-Man-like-Tammy-Wynette kind of gal? At least the thimble has Barbara on it. The spoon just has the former President. Figures!

Tchotchke?

From today's Jungle Law:

The hottest item in the (Supreme Court) GIFT SHOP is the Supreme Court gavel pencil, which sells for 75 cents. Two other popular tchotchkes: the Supreme Court pewter thimble ($3.99) and the Constitution silk tie ($24.95).

Alas, I do not have a Supreme Court pewter thimble. I do not have a Supreme Court pewter thimble picture. I do not have a link to where one might purchase a Supreme Court pewter thimble.
Sue me.

Cherubs and Garlands

This thimble recently sold on eBay for US$67.78. If this is a genuine Simons Bros. Cherubs and Garlands thimble, that price is a little low. The problem is that a lot of repros/fakes are of this particular thimble are being sold on eBay, and I think collectors are skiddish about bidding on an item when there are so many fakes floating around.

This one looks like the real deal, but without having it may hands, I can't really tell. I especially like that the seller has included a photo of the inside of the thimble and the manufacturer's mark therein. On many the fakes, the outside can look fairly genuine, but the inside is usually off: too rough, too smooth, too shiny, too whatever. This one looks like the inside of my genuine thimbles.

Cherubs and Garlands thimble
US$67.78; 5 bids, starting at US$50.01
3 February 2007.

This, on the other hand, is being sold on eBay as a reproduction (BuyIt Now price: US $26.99). I guess it is fine that the seller is clarifying that it is a reproduction, but will whoever buys it make it clear to whomever it's resold to that it's a repro? The picture itself is pretty bad, so it's hard to point out the minor details one would spot to detect a fake, but a glaring detail is the word "STERLING" to the right of the cherub's foot. On this particular thimble design, this word should be inside, under the dome with the Simons shield, like the one pictured above.

Woodrow Wilson Birthplace

This thimble is a memento of Woodrow Wilson's birthplace in Staunton, Virginia. It is Staffordshire porcelain, and is available through the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library in Staunton for $6.95 plus S/H. One might also purchase a golf ball depicting Woodrow's signature; Pierce-Arrow mugs, tumblers, and paperweights; the ubiquitous souvenir spoon*; a totebag; and various other things like books and bronze busts.

*Damned Spoonies!

The "Quilt Code" and Underground Railroad

This is not strictly thimble-related, though it is sewing-related.
February is Black History Month and I have gotten many requests for books on the connection between quilts and the Underground Railroad: that various quilt patterns were used to help escaped slaves navigate the underground railroad. The most requests are from teachers for children to read. I even got a request for a coloring book of quilt patterns for kids to color, to, in effect, make their own Freedom Quilts. This would be a great activity to help kids learn about and remember the Underground Railroad. Unfortunately, the whole Quilt/UGRR connection is not a historical fact.
There are several websites dedicated to revealing the truth. One that is particularly informative and has links to many other sites is Leigh Hellner's Betsy Ross redux: the Underground Railroad "Quilt Code." Another is Kimberly Wulfert's UGRR page at antiquequiltdating.com. I am not, in the words of one of the authors of a bestselling Quilt Code book, an "angry white quilter." My forebears include both quilters and abolitionists; one branch owned one of the "stations" along the UGRR. I don't have an axe to grind. I just believe that the truth is better than a lie. Particularly a very lucrative lie. The courage of those who escaped the chains of slavery does not need this sort of embroidery to embellish it.

Superblog Sunday?

I'm sorry.
We trained, professional couch-potatoes are required to abstain from strenuous blogging activity 24 hours before the Big Game.

Give'em Hell, Harry!

Gearing up for Presidents' Day:
This is a very affordable--$3.50 + S/H--pewter souvenir thimble available through the Truman Library in Independence, MO. They sell a lot of other Harry Truman stuff: Robert Ferrell's and David McCullough's Truman biographies, a 4"x4" ceramic "Dewey Defeats Truman" tile, an "If You Can't Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen" apron, and the usual souvenirs (pens, magnets, spoons,. . .).

The library info:
500 W. US Hwy. 24.
Independence, MO 64050
Phone: 816-268-8200 (Admin. offices) or 1-800-833-1225 (Info line)
Hours: Monday through Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.; Sunday, Noon to 5:00 p.m.
Admission prices: $7 for adults, $5 for seniors, $3 for children ages 6 to 18, free for children 5 years and under.

The Pabst Mansion

Pabst? Like the beer? Hmm. . .
This lovely souvenir is to remember The Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion, the "finest Flemish Renaissance Revival Mansion in America." The website has loads of info on the manse, with history and a photo tour and a gift shoppe with this thimble and postcards and toothpick holders and T-shirts and magnets and beer stuff. Hmmm. . .

Visit 'em in person:
The Pabst Mansion
2000 W. Wisconsin Avenue
Milwaukee, WI 53233-2043

Hem your skirt/Poison a spy

This way cool thimble-with-ring just sold on eBay. I confess I have a weakness for these Middle Eastern thimble-ring-combo-deals, but this one seems especially cool because the ring has a little compartment that opens up. I've been assured that rings-with-compartments aren't actually meant to conceal poison for offing foreign agents, but all those Mata Hari movies/Rocky and Bullwinkle episodes just can't be wrong.
The gold wash on the ring and thimble seems little overdone.

Anyway, the eBay nitty gritty:

Fingerhut und Sicherheitskette plus Fingerring mit Geheimdose
(roughly translated: Thimble and safety chain and ring with secret box).
EUR 61.00 (US$79.29): 19 bids, starting at EUR 3.00 (US$3.90).
31 January 2007.