thimble
Object
Accession Number
2008.005.035Description
A brass thimble with a rolled edge below a plain band. There is knurling above the band and over the top. On the top is a Stanhope peep. When viewed from the bottom the peep reveals four photographic images of 'The Forth Bridge' with the dimensions of the bridge and the marks "McKee Dublin" and "France" in small print at the bottom. On the band is the mark "2".Narrative
Thimbles are designed to protect the fingers and give increased leverage while pushing a needle through fabric. In the Victorian period, thimbles were often highly decorative and used as collectible as well as practical items.This thimble has a Stanhope peep or optical bijoux on the top. Peeps are a form microphotography mounted to a plano-convex lens that allows the image to be viewed without a microscope. Developed in the 1850s and exhibited at the 1862 Great London Exhibition, peeps were commonly incorporated into jewellery, pens, watches, musical instruments, and sewing tools. Common scenes depicted were tourist sites, famous people, and religious imagery and texts.
It is rare to find thimbles with peeps in them due, likely, to the fact that they make the practical use of a thimble difficult. The lens on this thimble was manufactured in France, imported by McKee of Dublin and inserted into a pre-made thimble. Stanhope thimbles are often falsely attributed to William Pursall due to his patent on them, however this, and all other known Stanhope thimbles, are of a different design. Combined with the markings on the lens, it is unlikely these were created by Pursall.1
The peep of the Forth Bridge is one of the most common in Stanhope thimbles. The Forth Bridge is a railway bridge across the Firth of Forth river estuary in Scotland. When it was completed in 1889 it was the first major bridge made of steel.
1. Scott, Jean. "Stanhopes- A Closer View". Greenlight Publishing: Essex. 2002.
