There have probably been thimbles for as long as there have been needles. Before the invention of sewing machines, everything had to be made by hand, from the sails of a ship to the sheets for a bed, from a baby’s swaddling clothes to the grandest royal gowns. A little cap worn on the finger protected it during the long hours spent pushing a needle through fabric.
Although thimbles were invented out of necessity, there are now an infinite number of variations, from utilitarian examples made from bone or Bakelite, to gem-studded thimbles that are fit for a queen.
Robert Bleasdale, director of the specialist sewing tool auctioneer Bleasdales, takes up the story: ‘Everyone who sewed had a thimble, and each thimble tells a story about a person, even a basic steel thimble so small it could only be used by a child.'
'The best chance of employment for a young girl from a poor background might be as a maid. She needed to be able to undertake all kinds of sewing and repairs, so she was taught skills from buttonholing to darning. She sewed to survive. At the other end of the spectrum, well-to-do ladies would meet with friends and bring their sewing tools. A valuable thimble was a sign of status; an expression of a lady’s taste and personality, and her ability to own fashionable, expensive things.’
Robert explains that rather like stamp or coin collectors, enthusiasts develop a deep knowledge of the tiny variations between thimbles. ‘Lots of people would think a thimble is a thimble, and that’s it. That anyone would pay thousands of pounds for a thimble can be baffling to outsiders, especially if it’s made of brass or some other cheap material. But serious collectors operate with a different logic entirely.’
In November 2023, Bleasdales sold a brass thimble for £1,020, plus fees. It was originally a souvenir sold to celebrate the visit of Queen Victoria to the newly opened tunnel under the Thames in 1843, a hugely popular tourist attraction that drew one million visitors in its first few weeks.
At one time there would have been thousands of the commemorative thimbles in circulation. So why did a mass-produced thimble set collectors’ pulses racing? ‘As they were cheap and cheerful, not really made to be cherished, most of the Thames Tunnel thimbles were used, worn out and thrown away, especially when the event ceased to be of any importance in people’s lives. So now they are quite rare,’ Robert explains.
The highest price achieved at auction for a thimble was in 1990, when the auction house Phillips sold a late-16th-century gold thimble encrusted with sapphires and rubies for £20 000, plus fees. What really set this thimble apart was the provenance – it was reputed to have belonged to Queen Elizabeth I, later given to one of her ladies-in-waiting and passed down through the generations of the same family.
But collecting thimbles doesn’t need to break the bank. It would be easy to find a simple antique silver thimble for £5 or so – slightly more than the scrap value of the metal – says Robert. ‘Then after a year of buying pretty ordinary thimbles, collectors start to want something better; their interest is piqued, they start to get more knowledgeable, and then they specialise. And unlike a big, heavy piece of mahogany furniture, unless you go completely bananas, thimbles are not going to take up much space, so it’s easy to build quite a big collection.’
Aside from the ease with which they can be displayed or stored, thimbles’ diminutive proportions are also aesthetically appealing. Collectors appreciate the skill required to achieve beauty in miniature. Their tiny size requires us to focus on them intently, taking our minds off life’s bigger trials and tribulations.
Given the scope in manufacture, there are innumerable ways of focusing a collection. Porcelain thimbles, for example, are a popular avenue for collectors, says Robert. ‘Derby made them in the 19th century, and Royal Worcester. They were easy for these companies to make and decorate, and they were sold in their thousands. But porcelain is really not a great material for a practical sewing tool like a thimble, as it is so easily broken, so they’re now much less commonplace.’
Collectors develop a specialist understanding of porcelain thimbles’ markings – or lack of them. For example, in the 1890s Royal Worcester used a puce mark, then in 1942 this switched to black. The year of manufacture is indicated with a series of dots, and after 1900 they were signed by the artist. Some artists, like William Powell, who was celebrated for his delicate renderings of birds, are particularly sought after.
A thimble’s condition has a significant impact on its value, Robert stresses. He gives the example of a silver thimble that was sold in Brighton in the 1820s, a time when thimbles were popular souvenirs from spa towns, such as Bath, or the fashionable new seaside resorts.
‘It has a small frieze featuring the promenade and the chain pier. Some of them can be quite worn, so they’d make around £40 at auction. A nice crisp example would go for much more, maybe £200.
There’s an even rarer Brighton souvenir thimble that features a donkey wheel, which for a very short time raised water from the harbour, which was then used to keep dust down on the streets.
A really good example of the donkey wheel thimble could go or £250 to £350.’
In more recent years, online platforms like the-saleroom.com have been a boon for collectors – the search term ‘thimble’ will throw up hundreds of results. However, Robert cautions that collectors shouldn’t be too narrowly focused when they search auction catalogues.
Good examples being sold in mixed lots can be missed, if the auctioneer’s description is a bit vague. He advises buyers to be on the lookout for thimbles in amongst things like sewing boxes or assorted sewing tools.
Prices were at their height in the late 1990s, buoyed by a number of very active collectors’ clubs. ‘You might have paid £300 back then for a nice Royal Worcester thimble that would make £80 to £120 now,’ Robert explains. Enthusiasts, however, tend to be motivated by the pleasure collecting brings them, and their fascination with the subject, rather than by thimbles’ investment potential.
‘Even though I’ve handled thousands of examples, I can still be surprised,’ says Robert. ‘Across the centuries, thimbles have been made in so many different materials and styles, with different types of decoration, to commemorate all manner of events, people or places, which means that there will always be something exciting and new to discover.’
