THIMBLE

A post medieval Dutch Type I silver thimble dating to the period AD 1620-1650. The thimble is complete but has been slightly flattened. The thimble comprises two parts. There is a separate circular dome at the top with a raised rim inside the dome which attaches to a sub-rectangular sheet that has been curled round to form a flared tube. The thimble is decorated all over and there is a maker's mark at the base of the flared tube in the lowest band of decoration which may be a greek letter phi or omega with an iota through it. The height of the thimble is 28.84mm, the width is 22.54mm x 14.72mm and 0.76mm thick.

The thimble is decorated at the base with a band comprising two double incised lines encircling the thimble. Between the lines are five pairs of diagonal incised lines with three horizontal lines in each pair. Above, there is a broad band of decoration covering the rest of the flared tube. The decoration comprises a plain band which circles the top and bottom of the flared tube with three breaks where the plain bands move away from the edge to form a double S shape with the top and bottom bands crossing in the centre to form an 'egg timer' shaped saltire. In between the plain bands, the thimble is decorated with small raised rings of rectangles. The rings are offset to create a 'brickwork' design.

At the top of the dome, there is an incised circle. Radiating from this are eight incised lines which extend to an incised circle. Below this are three rows of the raised rectangular decoration with a plain band encircling the edge of the dome. Between the raidating lines, there are three lines radiating from the central circle and beyond these are short incised lines circling the dome. From the incised circle above the rectangular design, there are about seven short incised lines between each of the radiating lines. These short lines increase in length towards the centre of each section. Cf Holmes, EF, 1988, Sewing Thimbles, in Finds Research Group 700-1700 Datasheet 9 p 4 Fig 7a.