Minerva's Thimble

Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug 28, 1851, page 1.

Two sizes bigger, Dear.

The Dallas Morning News
13 October 1912

The Dancing Fingers of Nunivak Island

Chicago Tribune, 29 March 1937.
(Click on image to enlarge.)

Happy Arbor Day!

OK. I really wish I had a thimble from an American arboretum to display here. Alas, I cannot find a thimble from an American arboretum. Fortunately the British have thimbles for everything. So. . .
This thimble is from the Batsford Arboretum, Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire. It's only £1.50 (US$2.94) plus S/H.
Th arboretum is open almost everyday starting at 10 a.m. There isn't a reference to when it closes, but a note that the last visitor is allowed in at 4:45 p.m.
The "in-Marsh" of Moreton-in-Marsh sounds a trifle damp, eh wot?

Thomas Stewart Needlecases

This is a needlecase from Thomas Stewart Studios in Mold, North Wales. It is called the Sian Needlecase and essentially a little sewing kit with a thimble for its screw-on top and an inner, three-thread bobbin with its own screw-on top, which forms the actual needlecase. It is available in three different hardwoods: African Blackwood, English Boxwood (shown) and Mexican Cocobola Rosewood, which Mr. Stewart has selected for their beauty and "suitability for turning screw threads."
This particular model sells for £30 (approx. US$60.00).

Suzanne Sewing

Study of a Nude. Suzanne Sewing.
Paul Gauguin. 1880.
Oil on Canvas.
Ny Carlsberg Glypotek, Copenhagen.

Four silver thimbles on eBay

Sterling Silver James Fenton Atlantic Cable Sterling Thimble
US$52.01; 10 bids starting at US$12.00.
26 March 2007.

From a fabulous eBay store, Elegant Arts Antiques
Simons Bros. Sterling Thimble, Size 7.
US$63.15 ; 6 bids starting at $30.26.
5 April 2007.

Sterling Silver Ketcham & McDougall Chased Rope Band Thimble.
US $96.00; 19 bids starting at US$16.69.
1 April 2007.

Vintage Silver and 9-karat gold Nifty thimble.
AU$370.65 (US$309.60); 14 bids starting at AU$30.00 (US$25.71).
16 April 2007.

I don't know anything about this thimble. The blurb in the listing states that it is marked "9 ct. Sil Lined," and, as pictured, "Nifty," and "9," which is probably the size of the thimble.

Patent: No. 539275: Thimble

Patent No. 539275, Frederick Wallace Kitto and Walter Kitto, Thimble, London, England,

May 14, 1895

Fabergé thimbles on eBay?

Imperial Russian Silver "Fabergé" thimble.
US$157.50: 9 bids starting at US$20.00.
3 April 2007.
Original listing with Seller's starting bid at US$350.00 went unbid upon.
Imperial Russian Silver "Fabergé" thimble.
US$76.99: 13 bids starting at US$1.01.
18 April 2007.
The listings for these two thimbles claim that they are from the Fabergé Workshop and are "marked КФ, the Carl Fabergé Workshop Control Mark," and "84, the Imperial Mark for solid silver." The "84" indicates that the pieces are 840/1000 silver (Sterling Silver is 925/1000 silver), and would be the mark used in Russia from 1882 until the Revolution in 1917, after which the silver standard was 875/1000.
The seller is located in Bulgaria and stated in the listing for the first (top, right) thimble that it was from a private collection, and owned by the Bulgarian Royal Court until the communist revolution in Bulgaria.
I know pretty much nothing about either Fabergé or their marks. I went to the exhibit of Fabergé at the DeYoung Museum several years ago and the thimbles, particularly the top one with the fox, look kind of like some of the silver I've seen. But the other pictures in the listings show a certain lack of precision in details that I don't think would have passed muster at Fabergé. And I'd think the real deal would always go up at one of the big auction houses like Christie's or Sotheby's. But I don't know enough one way or another to say if these are genuine.

Balmoral Castle

In a previous post I had a little fun with Her Majesty's birthdate. Today actually is her birthday, her 81st.
To commemorate this occasion I am featuring a pretty little thimble from Balmoral Castle's Royal Gift Shop, " a selection of gifts from Balmoral Castle and Sandringham House." The fine bone china thimble depicts Balmoral Castle and is presented in a gift box. The price is "£3.55 /$6.75 including VAT at 17.5%," though the the website states that "Orders outwith the European Union are exempt from VAT." Outwith?* So that means it's not $6.75, right? **

*My Irish ancestors will be happy to note that I have not completely learned Her Majesty's English. Outwith?
**Why did they put the price in U.S. dollars "including VAT," when orders shipped to the U.S. are exempt from VAT? Maybe they ship to American expats who still haven't gotten used to Euros or pounds or whatever? In that case they would have been better off to convert the metric dimensions ("Width 1.9cm and height 2.7cm") of the thimble into inches than to fuss with the money. Americans will eventually figure out the money, but never, ever, the Metric System.***
***In defense of my countrymen, I must say that the main problem with our learning the Metric System is the damnable way it's taught to us. Multiplying inches or whatever by some number to get centi-somethings. We just want to know "about" how big/long/heavy something is. Americans know about how much sodapop is in two liters. We know a 100-meter-dash is about the same as a 100-yard-dash. We want to know about how many kilometers-per-hour we can drive before we get a speeding ticket, but we're not going to doing a math calculation while we're out on the highway to figure it out .

Not a thimble, part seven.

This thing is in Key West, Florida, and marks the southernmost point in the continental United States. This, dear Watson, I cleverly deduced by. . . uh. . . well. . .
Anyway, the week-long festivities for the 25th anniversary of Conch Republic Independence celebration start today in Key West. The Conch Republic began on April 23, 1982, when United States Border Patrol set up a blockade on U.S. Highway 1 in Florida City, north of the Florida Keys, cutting off the Keys' access to the Florida mainland. After official attempts to get an injunction stopping the blockade failed, the Floridians did what southern rebs do, they seceded from the union:

(They) symbolically began the Conch Republic's Civil Rebellion by breaking a loaf of stale Cuban bread over the head of a man dressed in a U.S. Navy uniform. After one minute of rebellion, the now, Prime Minister Wardlow turned to the Admiral in charge of the Navy Base at Key West, and surrendered to the Union Forces, and demanded 1 Billion dollars in foreign aid and War Relief to rebuild our nation after the long Federal siege!*

*from www.conchrepublic.com

Fortunes on Finger Ends

From: The Fitchburg (MA) Sentinel, 1 February 1904, page 3.

FORTUNES ON FINGER ENDS.
Queen of Siam Wears a Thimble Worth $75,000.

The costliest thimble in the world is undoubtedly one possessed by the queen of Siam. It was presented to her by her husband, the king, who had it made at a cost of rather more than £15,000.
This thimble is quite an exquisite work of art. It is made of pure gold, in the fashion or shape of a half opened lotus flower, the floral emblem of the royal house of Siam.
It is thickly studded with the most beautiful diamonds and other precious stones, which are so arranged as to form the name of the queen, together With the date of her marriage. She regards this thimble as one of her most precious possessions.
Not long since a Paris Jeweler made a most elaborate thimble to the order of a certain well-known American millionaire. It was somewhat larger than the ordinary size of thimbles, and the agreed price was £5000. The gold setting was scarcely visible so completely was it set with diamonds, rubles and pearls in artistic designs, the rubies showing the initials of the intended recipient.
This thimble was made as a birthday gift to the millionaire's daughter who can now boast possession of the second most valuable thimble in the world. Her father was so much pleased with the fine workmanship it showed that he ordered another but much less expensive one to be made for presentation to the school companion and bosom friend of his fortunate child.
Five or six years ago a jeweler in the West End of London was paid a sum of nearly £3000 for a thimble, which the pampered wife of a South American Croesus insisted on having made for her. This was one mass of precious gems, diamonds and rubies, which as thimble ornaments seem to almost monopolize feminine taste.
The eccentric prince, the late Maharajah Dhulpee Singh never did things by halves, and one of the most beautiful and costly thimbles ever made was that which was supplied to his order as a present to a great lady in Russia.
The price of this ran well into four figures, and the gems set in it were all pearls of great value and no less beauty.
So were those in a highly treasured thimble, which, on the occasion of one of his visits to Europe, the late Shah of Persia presented to a lady whose guest he was for a few hours. In the words of the delighted recipient, it looked like a cluster of glittering gems, which in reality it was, save for the gold in which they were set. An expert in precious stones valued this thimble at £1500.
There are thimbles of no intrinsic value, but which on account of the famous women to whom they belonged would command very high prices if submitted to public auction. In the possession of the wealthy Mrs Vanderbilt there is a thimble which was formerly used by Queen Alexandra. It is an extremely dainty article, made of gold and enamel. But, apart from its associations, it is not of much greater value than another thimble owned by the same American lady. That is a very serviceable looking article in solid silver, but very small. Its value lies in the fact that it was the property of the late Queen Victoria in the days when she was only a girl of fourteen. From Its appearance our late sovereign knew how to ply her needle in her youthful days. The first thimble ever made was the one presented in the year 1684 to Anna Van Wedy, the second wife of Killaon Van Rensselaer, and the thimble is, therefore, a Dutch invention. In making the presentation the giver, Van Benschoten, begged the lady "to accept this new covering for the protection of her diligent fingers as a token of his great esteem and profound appeal."

This was a filler article from some source that provided such things. A lot of these filler items were a lot of hooey. My grandfather published a newspaper a zillion years ago, and would fill space with ridiculous, florid poems that he'd written under a feminine alias. I've never seen any of this thimble info in any other source.

Girl Sewing

Girl Sewing.
Camille Pissarro, 1895.
Art Institute of Chicago.

The Adventures of an Elf

By Fedor Flinzer. Freely translated by J.H. Ewing.


I.
Dear children, listen whilst I tell
What to a certain Elf befell,
Who left his house and sallied forth
Adventure seeking, south and north,
And west and east, by path and field,
Resolved to conquer or to yield.
A thimble on his back he carried,
With a rose-twig his foes he parried.
II.
It was a sunny, bright, spring day,
When to the wood he took his way;
He knew that in a certain spot
A Bumble Bee his nest had got.
The Bee was out, the chance was good,
But just when grabbing all he could,
He heard the Bee behind him humming,
And only wished he'd heard him coming!
III.
In terror turned the tiny man,
And now a famous fight began:
The Bee flew round, and buzzed and stung,
The Elf his prickly rose-staff swung.
Now fiercely here, now wildly there,
He hit the Bee or fought the air.
At last one weighty blow descended:
The Bee was dead—the fight was ended.
IV.
Exhausted quite, he took a seat.
The honey tasted doubly sweet!
The thimble-full had been upset,
But still there were a few drops yet.
He licked his lips and blessed himself,
That he was such a lucky Elf,
And now might hope to live in clover;
But, ah! his troubles were not over!
V.
For at that instant, by his side,
A beast of fearful form he spied:
At first he thought it was a bear,
And headlong fell in dire despair.
He lost one slipper in the moss,
And this was not his only loss.
With paws and snout the beast was nimble,
And very soon cleared out the thimble.
VI.
This rifling of his honey-pot
Awoke our Elfin's wrath full hot.
He made a rope of linden bast,
By either end he held it fast,
And creeping up behind the beast,
Intent upon the honey feast,
Before it had the slightest inkling,
The rope was round it in a twinkling.
VII.
The mouse shrieked "Murder!" "Fire!" and "Thieves!"
And struggled through the twigs and leaves.
It pulled the reins with all its might,
Our hero only drew them tight.
Upon the mouse's back he leapt,
And like a man his seat he kept.
His steed was terribly affrighted,
But he himself was much delighted.
VIII.
"Gee up, my little horse!" he cried,
"I mean to have a glorious ride;
So bear me forth with lightning speed,
A Knight resolved on doughty deed.
The wide world we will gallop round,
And clear the hedges at one bound."
The mouse set off, the hero bantered,
And out into the world they cantered.
IX.
At last they rode up to an inn:
"Good Mr. Host, pray who's within?"
"My daughter serves the customers,
Before the fire the Tom-cat purrs."
For further news they did not wait—
The mouse sprang through the garden-gate—
They fled without a look behind them.
The question is—Did Thomas find them?

I think I will not classify this with Thimbles in Art.

White Metal Thimbles

The (London) Times, Friday, March 7, 1788;
p. 1; issue 880307; col A.

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.

Patent: No. 2597564: Stitch and Seam Opener

Patent No. 2597564, Kenly C. Bugg, Fort Wayne, IN,
20 May 1952

Update: picture!

Unsinkable

This pewter thimble is topped by a small sculpture* of Margaret Tobin "Unsinkable Molly" Brown. It is available from the Molly Brown House Museum (scroll down to bottom of page) in Denver for $5.00, plus S/H.

The Molly Brown House Museum
1340 Pennsylvania Street
Denver, CO 80203
Ph.: (303) 832-4092
Fax: (303) 832-2340
Hours:
Sept.-May: Tues.-Sat., 10 a.m.-last tour at 3:30 p.m.; Sun., 12 noon-last tour at 3:30 p.m.
June-Aug.: same hours as above and also open on Monday.
*I struggle here to not use the term "flat bust."

I have been remiss in my posting: I have been sick since Good Friday (April 6th).

An Egg for Easter

1877 Victorian Sterling Silver Egg-Shaped Sewing Kit
from Collection of John C. Hicks House, St. Johns, Michigan.
Has three-tier spool for thread and rim has holes for twelve needles/pins.
Includes a Charles Horner "Dorcas" thimble, Daisy pattern, size 7.
Kit marks: TJ, Lion passant, B, Queens Head.
US$528.00; 24 bids starting at US$1.00.
8 April 2007.

To my fellow Christians: He is Risen! Alleluia, Alleluia!
To my friends of other beliefs: Peace be with you.

Woman Sewing By Lamplight

Woman Sewing By Lamplight,
Jean-François Millet, c. 1870-72.