The Lowly Thimble

Granny D here.  Thimble is such a funny word.  It's origin is thought to come from the old English word thymel, meaning thumbstall. The official term for one who collects thimbles is “digitabulist.”



I have to admit that I have never used a thimble.  They always feel so heavy and awkward.  And they make my finger sweat.  But my grandmother used one while piecing her quilts or hemming a dress.  It always seemed to me to be on the wrong finger to me, not the middle one I use to push the needle through but the one beside it, next to her pinkie.  Yet, she never sat down to sew without her thimble, the working end pock marked and pitted.

While thinking about that today, I began to wonder about thimbles.  I know they've been around for centuries and have been made of many, many different materials like mother of pearl, sterling and plated silver, brass, bone, and even gold. There are porcelain thimbles, wooden thimbles, and thimbles made from carved stone. Among the most legendary are Fabergé thimbles from the 19th century. Some of these had polished agates or other types of semi-precious stones set in their tops. The sides of others were decorated with colorful enamel patterns or bands.

Here are a few interesting facts about thimbles that may surprise you.

• Nearly 30 lots of Meissen porcelain thimbles fetched a total of $189,813 during the Ann Blakeslee Black Collection of Thimbles, Needlework Tools and Vertu auction presented by Leslie Hindman Auctioneers on May 21, 2014. A Meissen porcelain thimble, circa 1730, with a landscape scene painted on the band, sold for five times its low estimate, finishing at $20,000.
• The Thimble Collectors International (TCI) group formed in 1978, and lists more than 35 regional clubs in the U.S., Australia and Europe.
• Examples of the precursor to the thimble date back 10,000 years, with metal thimbles coming into use outside of the U.S. as early as 1150. The first American thimble factories opened in the 1830s with Ketcham and McDougall of New York paving the way, followed closely behind by Simons Bros. in Philadelphia in 1839 — a company still manufacturing thimbles today.
• In the past, thimbles were popular advertising vehicles, especially in American culture.
• The Fingerhut Thimble Museum in Creglingen, Germany, is reportedly the world’s only museum devoted entirely to thimbles. It opened in 1982 with some 800 exhibits. Today the museum showcases more than 4,000 exhibits from around the world.

To read more about interesting thimble facts, go to http://www.antiquetrader.com/antiques/antiques-americana/ten-things-didnt-know-thimbles/

For more information on thimbles and to see some truly beautiful works of art, check out http://www.thimbleselect.com/learn.

I'm sad to say that I don't have even one of my grandmother's thimbles but I wish I did. Do you use a thimble? t would be interesting to know just how many people still use thimbles.