Accession Number

1986.008.0021

Creation Date

circa 1600

Description

A domed, silver thimble of tapering-cylindrical form once protected a wearer’s fingertip as a needle was pushed through cloth or other materials during sewing. The indentations on the top of the thimble helped to secure the end of the needle so it would not slip during this process. These dozens of indentations have been individually punched. A decorative floral of leaf pattern is engraved on the sides of the piece. The fact that this thimble is made of silver and the similarity of the engraving to that found on other American-made items from the 1622 galleons suggests that it, too, was made in the colonies, likely South America.

Exhibition Label

Case Caption (2023):

A COLONIST— DOÑA MARÍA DE AYALA

Doña María de Ayala had traveled from Spain to Potosí with her husband, Martin Salgado de Rivera, in 1615. High in the Andes, Potosí has cool, wet summers, icy winters, and sits on a barren plain. Everything the couple needed had to be carried up the mountains by llamas. María’s day would have been spent working with her servants to stretch household supplies, haggling with local traders for food and fuel, and mending linens and clothes that could not be readily replaced. Occasionally, floods and earthquakes would add to María’s troubles.

But her husband’s appointments had made them wealthy. When they sailed for Spain, they were accompanied by María’s maid, Catalina, and two very young, possibly Indigenous, servant girls. They all drowned aboard the Nuestra Señora de Atocha.
Object Caption (2023):

Thimbles
Silver (c.1610)
Gift of Jamestown Inc.
1986.008.0021, 1986.008.1369

These two thimbles are very different. One is in the European style of the day, but the other boasts geometric Inca designs.