More about Thimbles

In 1985 Edwin Holmes published his second book entitled ‘A History of Thimbles’. No other book about thimbles has been as complete or so thoroughly researched. Time has passed since Holmes wrote this book and, in the succeeding years, more information has become available in relation to some of the topics that Holmes addressed.

This site contains a series of papers that attempt to supplement Holmes in some of those areas where more about the thimbles concerned is now known. The related chapters of Holmes are indicated at the bottom of each paper. If and when further information on any subjects becomes available the relevant paper will be updated with an 'addendum'.

Acknowledgements to the people who have helped us in our researches appear at the end of each paper.

As further information becomes available additional papers may be added to the site.

Magdalena and William Isbister,

Moosbach, Germany 2012

Karl Bock (КБ) was an Imperial Court Jeweller in the early 20th century and received his ‘Imperial warrant’ in 1901. He had shops in Saint Petersburg and Moscow and made this gold thimble. It is a simple gold thimble with three pear shaped natural rubies set into a special applied floral decoration. It is marked with the maker’s mark (КБ), a woman’s head facing left, 56 and AP (AR) for the assay master Alexander Romanov of St. Petersburg, 1899-1908.

Researched and published in 2002/11

Magdalena and William Isbister, Moosbach, Germany

Preface