Child's thimble

Date1700-1800

MediumSilver

DimensionsDiameter 13/32 in.; Height 1/4 in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1952-28

DescriptionThis is a child's silver thimble. It is cylindrical with a rounded top. The thimble has rounded indentations throughout. There are two raised bands near the top and bottom of the thimble.
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 1952, Clara Frances Wolff [Mrs. DeWitt Clinton Cohen] (New York, NY); prior to 1951, Ginsburg & Levy (New York, NY); 1952 purchased by The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation (Williamsburg, VA)