THIMBLE

A complete but fragmented and distorted silver thimble dating to the Post-Medieval period, c. 1600-1700. The thimble is of two-piece construction, consisting of a sheet metal base/wall (now broken), that originally would have been soldered together at one edge, and a separate domed crown that would have been soldered to the top of the wall’s sides.

The base/wall is fragmented into three irregularly size sub-rectangular sheets. These breaks are clean and sharp running vertically down the wall of the thimble revealing a silver core to the metal.  Traces of the solder that would have connected the crown to the walls remain on the inside surface of the largest fragment on its upper edge. Each fragment of the wall is made of a rectangular sheet that would have stood 19.1mm high. Each is curved to form the circular plan of the thimble although the largest piece has been bent so much that it is almost flat in its centre.

The walls of the plates are decorated with two clustered bands of indents that run around the outside the thimble with plain areas at the top bottom and centre. Each cluster is made up of 4 rows of similar but not identically sized impressed small square dimples that, while regularly spaced horizontally, are irregularly spaced vertically. These rows are broken twice by vertical plain lines with no square dimples but each containing of three impressed larger circles running up the height of the thimble. The broad plain base band is divided by a single incised line running around the thimble and marking the base area. Decoration on the crown itself largely mirrors that on the walls, consisting four concentric circles of stamped rectangular dimples identical to those on the sides of the object. The apex of the crown is plain (tonsured). A single hole (c. 1.4mm diameter) is pierced through the largest fragment near its base

Dimensions: The thimble would have stood to a height of 23.0mm. The crown has a maximum diameter of 14.3mm at its base (not accounting for distortion), the walls are c. 0.7mm thick and the combined weight of the fragments is 4.72 grams

Discussion: A similar example to this thimble is illustrated in Read (Read 2018, 52-54) no. 202 which is also recorded within the database (Hayward Trevarthen 2012). These date the thimble to the Mid-Late 17th Century albeit with no details as to the justification for this. Bliss (2018) states that thimbles of this form are typically dated to the first three quarters of the 17th century (citing McConnell 1999, 24) and appear to be of English manufacture. Similarly, Holmes suggests that this form of thimble dates from the late 16^th to mid-17^th century (1988: 3, fig. 6) and suggests that bare crowns are never found after c. AD 1650.  As such, the majority of literature is agreed that thimbles such as this example date between AD 1600-1700.

Conclusion: The object is a minimum of 10% precious metal and is over 300 years old. Consequently, it qualifies as Treasure under the stipulations of the Treasure Act 1996 in terms of both age and precious metal content.