The night before I got married in Santa Barbara, Nanny Sheila, Adam’s grandmother, gave me a silver thimble to carry as my “something old”. The thimble was given to her in the 1940’s by Nanny Clara, the mother of her sister-in-law, Marjorie. Nanny Sheila and Marjorie were friends from the age of 7 years old. Nanny Clara gave Sheila the thimble because she loved to sew, so she thought it was quite fitting to pass it on to me!
I used the thimble to hand sew all of the ties that I made for the groomsmen and fathers at our big wedding in Seattle. Amazingly, the thimble fit perfectly and was such a delight to use for a wedding project as every stitch held a bit of family history.
Nanny Sheila taught me that every object that is pure silver (at least every object that is also old and from England) will have several stamps on it to show that it is silver, the stamp of the artisan that made it, its exact provenance, and the year that it was made.
Nanny gave me a book and a couple of pamphlets to help identify the exact year and provenance, but the stamps were a bit too worn for us to figure it out exactly. I did have a delightful time with her trying to figure it out, even if we were unsuccessful!
Aww, I love the story behind this! It’s great to have family connections and be able to carry on your family history.
What a loving story. My mom promised me a silver thimble when I learned how to use one. I still don’t use one, can’t get one to fit comfortably over the bump on my finger. My mother-in-law, however, thought I needed a silver thimble anyway and she gave me one. What a sweet MIL I have.