Saturday, April 14, 2007

Now that Lent is over. . .

The lovely, green-enamelled-brass thimble above is one of several examples of "peep" thimbles one can order through a British company called Woodsetton DesignWorks Ltd. in Woodsetton, England. In a nutshell, each "peep" has a teeny-tiny lens--in the thimbles it is on the top, not shown here--through which one looks, pointing the item toward a light source, and sees some type of image. The concept has been around a while: very popular in the Victorian era.
The Woodsetton DesignWorks peeps differ from the older, highly collectible, Stanhope peeps in that they use newer "technology" designed and patented by David Bates. They have a plastic, tubular lens that magnifies the microdot images. Woodsetton peeps are available in at least four different thimble versions plus several non-thimble items: the website features fairies, letterknives, a pewter John Paul II cross, spoons, and various pewter figures. The website shows each collectible with a particular microdot image, but one can select from any of the images when "checking out." Images include Woodland Fairies, Windsor Castle, Alice in Wonderland (several different), Golf Fashion, The Lord's Prayer, and many (ahem!) others.
The thimbles are available in pewter, brass (shaped like bell)*, green enamelled brass (shown above), and silver plate. They are £10.00 GBP (about US$19.86).
I have an oldish Woodsetton peep thimble commemorating the centennial of the Statue of Liberty. It is very cool.

*I'm not certain if the brass bell is only available for the Titanic commemorative or not.

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