![Fingerhueter-1568](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e3/Fingerhueter-1568.png)
A thimble is a small pitted cup worn on the finger that protects it from being pricked or poked by a needle while
sewing
Sewing is the craft of fastening or attaching objects using stitches made with a sewing needle and thread. Sewing is one of the oldest of the textile arts, arising in the Paleolithic era. Before the invention of spinning yarn or weaving fabr ...
. The
Old English
Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...
word , the ancestor of thimble, is derived from Old English , the ancestor of the English word ''thumb''.
History
Pre-17th century
As the purpose of a thimble is to prevent discomfort while sewing by providing a barrier between fingertips and the blunt end of a needle, it is likely that the earliest thimbles were created closely following the invention of sewing.
According to the United Kingdom Detector Finds Database,
thimbles dating to the 10th century have been found in England, and thimbles were in widespread use there by the 14th century.
Although there are isolated examples of thimbles made of precious metals—
Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...
is said to have given one of her ladies-in-waiting a thimble set with precious stones—the vast majority of metal thimbles were made of
brass
Brass is an alloy of copper (Cu) and zinc (Zn), in proportions which can be varied to achieve different mechanical, electrical, and chemical properties. It is a substitutional alloy: atoms of the two constituents may replace each other wit ...
. Medieval thimbles were either cast brass or made from hammered sheet. Early centers of thimble production were those places known for brass-working, starting with Nuremberg in the 15th century, and moving to Holland by the 17th.
17th century and later
![Lofting type](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0c/Lofting_type.jpg)
In 1693, a Dutch thimble manufacturer named
John Lofting
John Lofting (1659 – 15 June 1742, London), originally Jan Loftingh, was an engineer and entrepreneur from the Netherlands.
Biography
His parents were Herman and Johanna. He moved to London, England, before 1686. He patented two inventions: th ...
established a thimble manufactory in Islington, in London, England, expanding British thimble production to new heights. He later moved his mill to Buckinghamshire to take advantage of water-powered production, resulting in a capacity to produce more than two million thimbles per year. By the end of the 18th century, thimble making had moved to Birmingham, and shifted to the "deep drawing" method of manufacture, which alternated hammering of sheet metals with annealing, and produced a thinner-skinned thimble with a taller shape. At the same time, cheaper sources of silver from the Americas made silver thimbles a popular item for the first time.
Thimbles are usually made from
metal
A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...
,
leather
Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffalo, pigs and hogs, ...
,
rubber
Rubber, also called India rubber, latex, Amazonian rubber, ''caucho'', or ''caoutchouc'', as initially produced, consists of polymers of the organic compound isoprene, with minor impurities of other organic compounds. Thailand, Malaysia, and ...
, and
wood
Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin th ...
, and even
glass
Glass is a non-crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenching) of ...
or
china
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Early thimbles were sometimes made from
whale
Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...
bone
A bone is a Stiffness, rigid Organ (biology), organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red blood cell, red and white blood cells, store minerals, provid ...
,
horn
Horn most often refers to:
*Horn (acoustic), a conical or bell shaped aperture used to guide sound
** Horn (instrument), collective name for tube-shaped wind musical instruments
*Horn (anatomy), a pointed, bony projection on the head of various ...
, or
ivory
Ivory is a hard, white material from the tusks (traditionally from elephants) and teeth of animals, that consists mainly of dentine, one of the physical structures of teeth and tusks. The chemical structure of the teeth and tusks of mammals is ...
. Natural sources were also utilized such as
Connemara
Connemara (; )( ga, Conamara ) is a region on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of western County Galway, in the west of Ireland. The area has a strong association with traditional Irish culture and contains much of the Connacht Irish-speak ...
marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
,
bog oak
Bog-wood (also spelled bogwood or bog wood), also known as abonos and, especially amongst pipe smokers, as morta, is a material from trees that have been buried in peat bogs and preserved from decay by the acidic and anaerobic bog conditions, some ...
, or
mother of pearl
Nacre ( , ), also known as mother of pearl, is an organicinorganic composite material produced by some molluscs as an inner shell layer; it is also the material of which pearls are composed. It is strong, resilient, and iridescent.
Nacre is ...
. Rarer works from thimble makers utilized
diamond
Diamond is a Allotropes of carbon, solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the Chemical stability, chemically stable form of car ...
s,
sapphire
Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sapphir ...
s, or
rubies
A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sap ...
.
Advanced thimblemakers enhanced thimbles with semi-precious stones to adorn the apex or along the outer rim.
Cabochon
A cabochon (; ) is a gemstone that has been shaped and polished, as opposed to faceted. The resulting form is usually a convex (rounded) obverse with a flat reverse. Cabochon was the default method of preparing gemstones before gemstone cutt ...
adornments are sometimes made of
cinnabar
Cinnabar (), or cinnabarite (), from the grc, κιννάβαρι (), is the bright scarlet to brick-red form of mercury(II) sulfide (HgS). It is the most common source ore for refining elemental mercury and is the historic source for the bri ...
,
agate
Agate () is a common rock formation, consisting of chalcedony and quartz as its primary components, with a wide variety of colors. Agates are primarily formed within volcanic and metamorphic rocks. The ornamental use of agate was common in Anci ...
,
moonstone, or
amber
Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In ...
. Thimble artists would also utilize enameling, or the
Guilloché
Guilloché (; or guilloche) is a decorative technique in which a very precise, intricate and repetitive pattern is mechanically engraved into an underlying material via engine turning, which uses a machine of the same name, also called a r ...
techniques advanced by
Peter Carl Fabergé
Peter Carl Fabergé, also known as Karl Gustavovich Fabergé (russian: Карл Гу́ставович Фаберже́, ''Karl Gustavovich Faberzhe''; 30 May 1846 – 24 September 1920), was a Russian jeweller best known for the famous Faberg ...
.
As collectibles
Originally, thimbles were used simply solely for pushing a
needle through
fabric
Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not th ...
or leather as it was being sewn. Since then, however, they have gained many other uses. From the 16th century onwards silver thimbles were regarded as an ideal gift for ladies.
![Meissen thimble](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Meissen_thimble.jpg)
Early Meissen porcelain and elaborate, decorated gold thimbles were also given as 'keepsakes' and were usually quite unsuitable for sewing. This tradition has continued to the present day. In the early modern period, thimbles were used to
measure
Measure may refer to:
* Measurement, the assignment of a number to a characteristic of an object or event
Law
* Ballot measure, proposed legislation in the United States
* Church of England Measure, legislation of the Church of England
* Mea ...
spirits
Spirit or spirits may refer to:
Liquor and other volatile liquids
* Spirits, a.k.a. liquor, distilled alcoholic drinks
* Spirit or tincture, an extract of plant or animal material dissolved in ethanol
* Volatile (especially flammable) liquids, ...
, and gunpowder, which brought rise to the phrase "just a thimbleful".
Prostitutes
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penet ...
used them in the practice of thimble-knocking where they would tap on a window to announce their presence. Thimble-knocking also refers to the practice of
Victorian schoolmistresses who would tap on the heads of unruly pupils with dames thimbles.
Before the 18th century the small dimples on the outside of a thimble were made by hand punching, but in the middle of that century, a machine was invented to do the job. A thimble with an irregular pattern of dimples was likely made before the 1850s. Another consequence of the mechanization of thimble production is that the shape and the thickness of the metal changed. Early thimbles tend to be quite thick and to have a pronounced dome on the top. The metal on later ones is thinner and the top is flatter.
Collecting thimbles became popular in the UK when many companies made special thimbles to commemorate the
Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhib ...
held in
the Crystal Palace
The Crystal Palace was a cast iron and plate glass structure, originally built in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, to house the Great Exhibition of 1851. The exhibition took place from 1 May to 15 October 1851, and more than 14,000 exhibit ...
in
Hyde Park
Hyde Park may refer to:
Places
England
* Hyde Park, London, a Royal Park in Central London
* Hyde Park, Leeds, an inner-city area of north-west Leeds
* Hyde Park, Sheffield, district of Sheffield
* Hyde Park, in Hyde, Greater Manchester
Austra ...
,
London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
.
In the 19th century, many thimbles were made from
silver
Silver is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European wikt:Reconstruction:Proto-Indo-European/h₂erǵ-, ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, whi ...
; however, it was found that silver is too soft a metal and can be easily punctured by most needles.
Charles Horner solved the problem by creating thimbles consisting of a steel core covered inside and out by silver, so that they retained their aesthetics but were now more practical and durable. He called his thimble the
Dorcas
Dorcas ( el, Δορκάς, Dorkás, used as a translated variant of the Aramaic name), or Tabitha ( arc, טביתא/ܛܒܝܬܐ, Ṭaḇīṯā, (female) gazelle), was an early disciple of Jesus mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles (, see discussi ...
, and these are now popular with collectors. There is a small display of his work in
Bankfield Museum,
Halifax,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Early American thimbles made of whale bone or tooth featuring miniature
scrimshaw
Scrimshaw is scrollwork, engravings, and carvings done in bone or ivory. Typically it refers to the artwork created by whalers, engraved on the byproducts of whales, such as bones or cartilage. It is most commonly made out of the bones and teeth ...
designs are considered valuable collectibles. Such rare thimbles are prominently featured in a number of New England Whaling Museums.
During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, silver thimbles were collected from "those who had nothing to give" by the
British government
ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd
, image = HM Government logo.svg
, image_size = 220px
, image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg
, image_size2 = 180px
, caption = Royal Arms
, date_es ...
and melted down to buy hospital equipment. In the 1930s and 1940s glass-topped thimbles were used for
advertising
Advertising is the practice and techniques employed to bring attention to a product or service. Advertising aims to put a product or service in the spotlight in hopes of drawing it attention from consumers. It is typically used to promote a ...
.
Leaving a
sandalwood
Sandalwood is a class of woods from trees in the genus ''Santalum''. The woods are heavy, yellow, and fine-grained, and, unlike many other aromatic woods, they retain their fragrance for decades. Sandalwood oil is extracted from the woods for us ...
thimble in a fabric store was a common practice for keeping
moth
Moths are a paraphyletic group of insects that includes all members of the order Lepidoptera that are not butterflies, with moths making up the vast majority of the order. There are thought to be approximately 160,000 species of moth, many of w ...
s away. Thimbles have also been used as
love-tokens and to commemorate important events. People who collect thimbles are known as
digitabulists. One superstition about thimbles says that if a person has three thimbles given to them, they will never be married.
Known thimble makers
![Thimble Toronto April 2010](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Thimble_Toronto_April_2010.jpg)
Most of these thimble makers no longer create thimbles.
* Avon Fashion Thimbles
* Wicks (Inventor USA)
* A Feaù and René Lorillon (French)
*
Charles Horner (UK) (1837–1896)
* Charles Iles (UK)
* Charles May
* Anthony Stavrianoudakis (GR)
* Gabler Bros (German)
* Henry Fidkin (UK)
* Henry Griffith (UK)
* James Fenton (UK)
* James Swann (UK)
* Jean Levy (France)
* Johan Caspar Rumpe (Germany)
*
Ketcham & McDougall (USA) (out of business 1988)
*
Meissen
Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrecht ...
(German)
* Roger Lenain (French)
* Samuel & Foskett (UK)
* Simons Bros Co (USA)
* Stern Bros & Co (USA)
* Uyu (USA)
* Waite-Thresher (USA)
* Webster (USA)
* William Prym (Germany)
Thimblette
![Sewing palm (AM 1969](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Sewing_palm_%28AM_1969.12-4%29.jpg)
Thimblettes (also known as rubber finger, rubber thimbles and finger cones) are soft thimbles, made predominately of rubber, used primarily for leafing through or counting documents, bank notes, tickets, or forms. They also protect against
paper cut
A paper cut occurs when a piece of paper or other thin, sharp material slices a person's skin, often the upper part of the finger, and often the index finger. Notably, "paper" cuts can also be caused by other thin, stiff, and abrasive materials ...
s as a secondary function. Unlike thimbles, the softer thimblettes become worn over time. They are considered disposable and sold in boxes. The surface is dimpled with the dimples inverted to provide better grip. Thimblettes are sized from 00 through to 3.
A
finger cot
A finger cot (also finger frock or finger stall, informally finger condom) is a medical device used to cover one or more fingers in situations where a full glove seems unnecessary. Like medical and rubber gloves, finger cots may be made from ...
is a smooth rubber "glove finger" used to protect the finger or the item being handled.
Sewing palms
A variation on the thimble used by
sailmaker
A sailmaker makes and repairs sails for sailboats, kites, hang gliders, wind art, architectural sails, or other structures using sails. A sailmaker typically works on shore in a sail loft; the sail loft has other sailmakers. Large ocean-going sa ...
s and leather workers is the sail palm, also known as ''sailor's palm'' and ''sailmaker's palm''. There are two variations, ''seaming palm'' which is used for light work, such as sewing canvas together and ''roping palm'' which is built for heavier work, such as sewing canvas and rope together.
This item consists of a pitted hard plate set into a stiff leather band that is worn around the palm of the hand, with the plate resting against the
first joint of the thumb. It is used by grasping a needle between the thumb and indexing finger, with the eye end of the needle against the pitted plate, and pushing the needle with the entire arm. Most palms are hand specific to give the user a better fit.
This design permits the sewer to exert a great amount of force when pushing thick needles through very tough materials such as sail cloth, canvas or leather.
Cultural references
In the
Parker Brothers
Parker Brothers (known by Parker outside of North America) was an American toy and game manufacturer which in 1991 became a brand of Hasbro. More than 1,800 games were published under the Parker Brothers name since 1883. Among its products wer ...
board game ''
Monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
'', first created in 1904, the thimble was one of the eight traditional metal game pieces used to mark a player's position on the game board. However, this piece is being replaced in the new versions of the board game in August 2017 following public consultation.
Thimbles are given as gifts in
Peter Pan
Peter Pan is a fictional character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie. A free-spirited and mischievous young boy who can fly and never grows up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood having adventures on the mythi ...
, who thinks thimbles are kisses.
In the 1992 movie ''
Batman Returns
''Batman Returns'' is a 1992 American superhero film directed by Tim Burton and written by Daniel Waters. Based on the DC Comics character Batman, it is the sequel to ''Batman'' (1989) and the second installment in the 1989–1997 ''Batman ...
'',
Catwoman
Catwoman is a fictional character created by Bill Finger and Bob Kane who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics, commonly in association with the superhero Batman. Debuting as "the Cat" in ''Batman'' #1 (spring 1940), she is ...
, played by
Michelle Pfeiffer, used thimbles to create the base of her claws.
The popular TV show and comic strip ''
Popeye
Popeye the Sailor Man is a fictional cartoon character created by E. C. Segar, Elzie Crisler Segar.[Elizabeth
Elizabeth or Elisabeth may refer to:
People
* Elizabeth (given name), a female given name (including people with that name)
* Elizabeth (biblical figure), mother of John the Baptist
Ships
* HMS ''Elizabeth'', several ships
* ''Elisabeth'' (sch ...](_blank)
in the video game ''
BioShock Infinite
''BioShock Infinite'' is a first-person shooter video game developed by Irrational Games and published by 2K Games. The third installment in the BioShock (series), ''BioShock'' series, ''Infinite'' was released worldwide for the Microsoft Window ...
'' uses a thimble to cover her severed little finger.
Video montages and series of clips are often called "thimble collections".
In the 2000 movie ''
Chicken Run
''Chicken Run'' is a 2000 stop-motion animated comedy film produced by Pathé and Aardman Animations in partnership with DreamWorks Animation. Aardman’s first feature-length film and DreamWorks Animation's fourth film, it was directed by ...
'', Nick and Fetcher attempted to sell a couple of thimbles to Ginger as a "quality, hand crafted tea set", among a slew of other items.
Auction records
On December 3, 1979, a London dealer bid the sum of $18,000 USD for a dentil shaped
Meissen porcelain
Meissen porcelain or Meissen china was the first European hard-paste porcelain. Early experiments were done in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger continued von Tschirnhaus's work an ...
thimble, circa 1740, at
Christie's
Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, at Rockefeller Center in New York City and at Alexandra House in Hong Kong. It is ...
auction in Geneva, Switzerland. The thimble, just over high, was painted in a rare lemon-yellow color about the band. It also had tiny harbor scene hand painted within gold-trimmed cartouches. The rim was scalloped with fired gold on its bottom edge. The thimble now belongs to a Meissen collector in Canada.
[Holmes EF. Thimble Notes and Queries, 1992; 14: 13]
During November 1994, Sirthey's saleroom yielded a one of a kind
Meissen
Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrecht ...
thimble bearing an armorial coat of arms at the price of £26,000.
On 13 June 1995,
Sotheby's
Sotheby's () is a British-founded American multinational corporation with headquarters in New York City. It is one of the world's largest brokers of fine and decorative art, jewellery, and collectibles. It has 80 locations in 40 countries, and ...
sold a
Meissen
Meissen (in German orthography: ''Meißen'', ) is a town of approximately 30,000 about northwest of Dresden on both banks of the Elbe river in the Free State of Saxony, in eastern Germany. Meissen is the home of Meissen porcelain, the Albrecht ...
thimble adorned with two pugs for £10,350.
Additional pictures
File:Post-medieval thimble, Sewing ring (a) (FindID 544385).jpg, 16th–17th century English copper sewing ring
File:17c UK silver.jpg, 17th century English silver
File:Brass Jacobean thimble.jpg, 17th century Jacobean brass
File:Silver Jacobean thimble.jpg, 17th century Jacobean silver
File:French gold thimble.jpg, 18th century French gold
File:Filigree thimble with glass bottle.jpg, 18th century silver filigree with scent bottle
File:Silver fingerguard.jpg, 19th century Dutch fingerguard
File:Tunbridge wooden thimble.jpg, 19th century English Tunbridge (wood)
File:French mother of pearl thimble.jpg, 19th century French mother of pearl – Palais Royal
File:Souvenir thimble of Abbotsford.jpg, 20th century English souvenir – Abbotsford House
File:Norwegian enamel (flower).jpg, 20th century Norwegian enamel (basse-taille) – David Anderson
File:Russian filigree thimble.jpg, Pre-revolution Russian silver gilt filigree
File:Russian gold.jpg, Pre-revolution Russian gold
File:William Powell.jpg, 20th century Royal Worcester – William Powell painter
File:Swedish gold.jpg, 20th century Swedish gold
File:Sewing girls.jpg, 20th century French silver – F Vernon 'Sewing girls'
File:Norwegian enamel thimble.jpg, 20th century Norwegian enamel (guilloché)
References
Further reading
*Bridget McConnel. A Collector's Guide to Thimbles. Secaucus, New Jersey: Wellfleet Books, 1990.
*E. F. Holmes. A history of thimbles. London: Cornwall Books, 1985.
*J. J. von Hoelle. Thimble collector's encyclopedia. Illinois: Wallace-Homestead Book Company, 1986.
*E. Zalkin. Zalkin's Handbook of Thimbles & Sewing Implements, 1st ed. Willow Grove: Warman Publishing Co., Inc., 1985.
*M. Isbister, W. H. Isbister
More about thimbles
External links
illustrated article on thimble history
Fabergé thimblesarticle on types of cellulose extraction thimbles
{{Authority control
Sewing equipment
Embroidery equipment
Fingers
Handwear