THIMBLE

A complete Post-Medieval copper alloy thimble dating AD 1520-1620. The thimble has a wide margin between the base and the regularly spaced pits which is decorated with a stamped pattern. The pattern comprises three stamped bands of repeated decoration. The upper and lower bands consisting of a row of pellets. The central band is made from a repeating sometimes overlapping motif of a cross pattée within a circular beaded border. The pits are drilled in a spiral and they cover the peak. Where the pits terminate, there is an undiagnosed makers stamp. The object is a brassy golden colour. The thimble has a split running from the base vertically till the top of the middle band of decoration. Similar Nuremberg thimbles can be seen in Holmes (1988 Fig.5).

Dimensions: height: 23.96mm; diameter: 15.65mm; weight: 2.08g.

Holmes (1988:3) writes "Thimbles with hand punched indentations often have a maker's mark which is struck where the spiral of the indentations begins near the base. These would appear to have been imported mostly from Nuremberg where, under the ordinances of the Guild of Thimble-makers, all thimbles and sewing rings were required to carry the mark of the master who made them. However not all Nuremberg thimbles are necessarily marked. So far as one can judge thimbles with makers' marks normally date from 1520-1620."

Similar thimbles on the database are LON-6EDF95, LON-94D972, LON-396407 and NMS-725926. See also an example from the Mary Rose, which sank in 1545 (Gardiner and Allen 2005, 329-40, no. 81 A0807).