Thimble

Date1780-1820

MediumSilver, carnelian (identified by eye)

DimensionsOL 1 in.

Credit LineAnonymous gift.

Object number1971-3403,1

DescriptionThis is a silver thimble with a red colored stone, likely a cornelian, set at the top. The thimble has a band of circular idendations at the top and a decorative band with engraved stripes at the bottom.
Label TextStitched in Time:
What sort of tools might a woman need in her needlework pursuits? Retail advertisements throughout the 18th and 19th centuries often group the fiber arts accoutrement, including sewing and knitting needles, scissors (both with their respective cases), buttons, awls or punches, thimbles, thread, pins, knitting sheaths, and more. Like needlework, these practical tools were often decorative.

In 1819, new mother Lucy Clark Allen bemoaned the disorganization of her own needlework tools as she started a new project. She wrote, "where is my work all this time? When I go to sit down to it, my thimble is under one chair, my scissors under another, my needle is lost or stuck into a far distant part...and by the time I have collected all my materials, down it must go again."
ProvenancePrior to 1971, Miss Mabel Osborne (Montclair, NJ); Prior to 1971, anonymous collection; 1971, given to The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)