Robert Louis Stevenson: Thimble Inspiration.

The Stevenson Emigrant Train thimble commemorates a story written by Robert Louis Stevenson called "Across the Plains" about part of a trip he took from Scotland to California in 1879 to visit his beloved (and future wife) Mrs. Fanny Osborne. The whole adventure is told in the book, The Amateur Emigrant.
Stevenson Emigrant Train Thimble.
US $483.00; 18 bids starting at US$12.00.
28 March 2007.
A French silver thimble inspired by yet another RLS work, a short story called "The Black Arrow: A Tale of The Two Roses."
Lenain Sterling Silver Black Arrow thimble.
US$103.50: 4 bids starting at US$100.00.
24 March 2007.
From Treasure Island:
Ch. 4: I felt in his pockets, one after another. A few small coins, a thimble, and some thread and big needles, a piece of pigtail tobacco bitten away at the end, his gully with the crooked handle, a pocket compass, and a tinder box were all that they contained, and I began to despair.
Ch. 6: The paper had been sealed in several places with a thimble by way of seal; the very thimble, perhaps, that I had found in the captain's pocket.

From Vailima Letters:
Ch. 22, October 8th: And there was of course a special verse for each one of the party — Lloyd was called the dancing man (practically the Chief’s handsome son) of Vailima; he was also, in his character I suppose of overseer, compared to a policeman — Belle had that day been the almoner in a semi-comic distribution of wedding rings and thimbles (bought cheap at an auction) to the whole plantation company, fitting a ring on every man’s finger, and a ring and a thimble on both the women’s. This was very much in character with her native name Teuila, the adorner of the ugly — so of course this was the point of her verse and at a given moment all the performers displayed the rings upon their fingers.

From The Wrecker, written with Lloyd Osbourne:
Ch. 12: The sight of her old neighbourly depredator shivering at the door in tatters, the very oddity of his appeal, touched a soft spot in the spinster's heart. "I always had a fancy for the old lady," Nares said, "even when she used to stampede me out of the orchard, and shake her thimble and her old curls at me out of the window as I was going by; I always thought she was a kind of pleasant old girl. Well, when she came to the door that morning, I told her so, and that I was stone-broke; and she took me right in, and fetched out the pie."