Considering the amount of time women spent plying their needle, the group of silver items including thimbles, thimble buckets, pin cushions, bodkins and needle cases, is not extensive, particularly with earlier items. The position improves much later, during the Victorian era and into the twentieth century, so in order to avoid frustration it is well worth considering the later examples when starting or adding to a collection.

Among these are silver thimbles which can make a stunning collection when grouped together for display. Silver thimbles were used in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but those which are usually available are not of this type, and even eighteenth century specimens have become far less easy to find. Nineteenth century thimbles were variously decorated, sometimes depicting topical subjects, or mottoes such as ‘God Save the Queen’. Ordinary examples are still quite reasonably priced and the range of designs and borders varies. Henry Griffith and Company, a gold and silversmith firm in Birmingham, produced vast numbers of silver thimbles in an enormous variety from 1856 until as recently as 1956. However, silver thimbles should be examined carefully before they are bought — there is a variance in the quality as well as the design.

Antique Collector MagazineThimble buckets were used to contain the thimble when it was suspended from a chatelaine. The little bucket, often nicely decorated, would have two rings for the small silver chain.

A rare but delightful item is the silver bodkin, mentioned in records as early as the fifteenth century, which was an aid to threading ribbon or tape. Early examples might be around five-and-a-half inches long, with a large threading eye and simple, crude decorative engraving. An ornamental loop or similar shape appeared just above the eye and this was topped by a ‘cupped’ or rounded piece of silver, which might have been used for cleaning the ears. Sometimes the owner’s initials might be engraved roughly or pricked out, while the maker’s mark appears on others. They seldom date later than the seventeenth century.

Pin cushions can be charming, mostly because of their varying shapes which include circular, heart, a rare book type with domed covers, piglets, owls, fluffy chicks, boots and so on. The padded portion is contained within the silver frame. Less ingenious silver mounts may be plain, or lightly decorated, sometimes with an ornamental edge which looks very pretty against the cushion. Early pin cushions might be stuffed with emery powder or similar abrasive, so that the pins would stay clean while they were in the cushion. Until about 100 years ago, the steel which was used to make pins and needles tended to rust quickly under usual atmospheric conditions.

Bodkin/needle cases, although they do exist, may take some time to find, particularly Georgian examples. Early nineteenth century specimens are very attractive, usually being engraved or bright-cut, but these are sadly often in dubious condition. They may have hinged (rare) or slip-off lids, the hinges sometimes being incorporated on the top of the lid and integrated into the design of the lid pattern. Those with slip-off lids vary in length and take the form of narrow, tapering, flat ‘tubes’.

The chatelaine, when hung with a full contingent of accessories, takes on a singularly feminine manner. It consists of a silver clip which is attached to a girdle or belt and from which are suspended, by slender silver chains, an assortment of little objects of use to the woman around the house. Chatelaines have been used since the Middle Ages but most in existence today date from about 1740. The appendages of nineteenth century examples in particular are numerous, sometimes undecorated but often quite exquisite. They might include a scent flask, perhaps heart-shaped and delectably engraved, or tapered and part-fluted; an engraved thimble bucket; a pair of scissors in a scissor case, prettily embossed; a decorative needle case; a small pill box; a pencil in a silver sheath with a slip-on lid; or a bodkin in its case, embossed and chased. Keys were often carried in this way but were not always hung from a chatelaine of silver, since other metals or substances — particularly pinchbeck — were commonly employed, and this would more probably have been carried by a person of lesser means.

An etui is the name given to a small case employed for carrying various personal items, including those used for needlework. The campaign etui was used by soldiers, in the seventeenth century and later, to contain cutlery, condiment containers, a corkscrew, and other implements.

Skewers

This practical object still survives in sufficient quantity from the late eighteenth century as to be collectable by those who can afford it. Nicely-marked examples are often seen, the hallmarks usually being punched near the loop, and the condition is generally quite good. There is hardly anything very revolutionary about the idea of a skewer, since it has always been the obvious way of holding meat or fowl together when cooking. Originally skewers were fashioned from wood, probably something like dogwood, until the seventeenth century when the hard lignum vitae from the West Indies made its appearance. At this stage the refinement of a silver skewer was unknown, a position which remained unchanged until it made its debut in the third decade or so of the eighteenth century.

At this point the skewer was not dissimilar to a bodkin in form, flat of blade and ending in a longish oval grip or loop, which would have been made separately and soldered to the blade. After about 30 years the loop became more ornamental and often incorporated a shell motif in its design, and by the mid-1760s the entire skewer was cast in one piece. With the increase in mass-production methods after about 1770 the skewer was not uncommonly die-struck, and incorporated a contemporary ornamental end near the circular loop in the style of current flatware. Skewers varied in length, depending for which purpose they were intended, the longer examples being about 15 inches in length and used for large joints, and the shorter measuring approximately seven inches, being used for game and poultry or smaller pieces of meat. They were commonly made in sets.

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Needlework accessories