Stoneface…
credits: Nocturnidae
Woot woot!
Beech forest in wintertime. Fichtelgebirge, Bavaria, Germany.
Photo by Martin Hertel.
Southside 2009 by misterhonk_de on Flickr.
If you dismiss the thimble as just one of the game tokens in Monopoly, think again. Even though most thimble makers have now gone out of business, this sewing tool is important enough to get its own museum. The Fingerhut Museum in Creglingen, Germany displays thimbles and other sewing tools of every style, type and make from all over the world. Starting in early Ancient Rome and Russia to the development of valuable decorative British and American silver and porcelain collectibles of the 19th and 20th centuries, owners Thorvald and Brigitte Grief also pay tribute to the history of thimble manufacturers and production, specifically the Gabler Company. They even have a goldsmith’s shop, which produces a small range of specially designed thimbles.
Want to know how old a thimble might be? Before the 1700s the small dimples on a thimble were made by hand punching, but later on, machines took over. So if you find a thimble with an irregular pattern of dimples, it was likely made before the 1800s.
Even though 3000 thimbles sounds impressive, the museum can’t beat Donna Decator of Kentwood, Michigan, who has the world’s largest thimble collection…4,930 to be exact. Actually Donna has some competition. Gloria Casar of Alicante, Spain claims to have over 7000. Did you hear that, Guinness World Records?
Our second day in Germany was spent learning our way around Htschenhausen and visiting Ramstein Air...