Thimble Collectors Club - Thimbleselect Catalogue

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LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER WHERE POSSIBLE
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The Thimble Collectors Club [TCC] came to my attention quite early on in my thimble collecting days - 1986. The glossy pamphlets that they issued promoted the idea of collecting "good" brands of china or porcelain from famous or often unheard of thimble china manufacturers. The added appeal was that on joining the Club one would automatically receive a new thimble every month. What a selection of high quality thimbles!!

I lived in South Africa when I made my first enquiry about joining the Club, but I had no response to my application. I put this down to being where I lived. I have always enjoyed collecting Royal Doulton thimbles and once I knew that TCC had issued a thimble featuring Balloon Seller, I approached them again and was able to purchase this lovely thimble as a one-off, in October 1987.

I became interested in the scheme again in late 1989 when an English penfriend sent me two she had bought for me - the uniqueness and quality of the thimbles really appealed, but I only joined the [English] Club in April 1993. At that time the free gift on joining was Oakley's Little Owl but it had been around since May 1985 - whether as part of the original subscriptions, or as a free gift like mine.
An amazing facility was that one could return thimbles, if they were not suitable, within one week of receipt. Did these returns form the basis of the 'free gifts'?

In September 1995, the Club switched from supplying thimbles each month, to sending out a batch of twelve at a time, for each year - though they were still paid for on a monthly basis. From 1996, the individual certificates stopped, in preference for one booklet brochure.

There were at least three Thimble Collectors Clubs - one in Chessington (Surrey, England - they were affiliated with the Danbury Mint), another in Norwalk (Connecticut, USA) and another in Germany (Der Fingerhut-Sammler-Club). The Club logos are different (see above). Which Club was established first and when? I presume that the Clubs started in the early 1980s. There are over TCC 550 thimbles in this listing, so my theory is that different thimbles were made for the different Clubs - otherwise TCC would have been going for 36 years!! Were the same thimbles issued to all members worldwide at the same time? No. From information I have received, newer members got thimbles that had been issued in the past. I have included the earliest date of issue where known. If yours is earlier, please let me know. The USA Club closed in 1998. It seems that the English Club ceased to exist in 2003.

Each thimble is boxed and has an accompanying leaflet giving a brief history of the china house and the name of each thimble and in the case of the US certificates, there is an illustration of the thimble's backstamp. The certificates are great to have and are even more important now that the Clubs no longer exist. Sadly none of the pamphlets are dated. There is no way of linking the thimbles back to TCC or dating the thimbles once the certificate has become separated from the thimble. There are exceptions: where the thimbles have a "Thimble Collectors Club" backstamp as well as the maker's mark - eg Moriken, Oakley, Shibata, Kiyomasa. Now you will be able to link your thimbles to TCC, with the marvellous photos supplied by Cathy and Jenny. We hope to fill the missing dates and certificates with help from other collectors. If you were in the TCC, you may have kept the dates?

Now that I have seen the certificates from both the USA and UK Clubs, it is easy to tell the difference. The USA Club certificates have the maker's backstamp on the certificate; the thimble information is on the other side, whereas the English TCC certificates are all printed on one side and there is no illustration of the backstamp. For ease of use, we have consolidated the USA Club certificates into one page each. The same thimbles have differing descriptions on the certificates (see Longton Hall's Rustic Castle). Both are included where possible. The German certificates follow the UK Club's style.

Thanks to Rosie, the mystery of the numbering of the TCC thimble boxes has been solved. From 1996, when the Club issued all 12 thimbles at once and the boxes were the generic TCC boxes, there is a label on the base with a code. The thimbles issued in that year have the numbering ATCC001-ATCC011. The 1996 Christmas thimble was issued as a "bonus freebie" with purchase of the others so, the 'F' in the number stands for 'free' and the 'A' prefix denotes the year. The 1997 group's boxes are sequentially numbered CTCC294-CTCC302 with the free Christmas issue CTCCF01. The matching certificates are numbered CTCCFC294-CTCCFC302. ETCC01 to ETCC11 are the thimble box numbers for 1999, with the Christmas 1999 thimble numbered ETCCF01. FTCC01 - FTCC11 is the 2000 set with the Christmas 2000 thimble box being FTCCF12. The 2001 thimble boxes are GTCC01 to GTCC11 + GTCCFO1 for the Christmas 2001 thimble.
These numbers were used for the English TCC - was a numbering system used for the USA club thimbles in this period?

In compiling these pages, we have followed the name of the thimble design as mentioned in bold lettering on each certificate - and done the same for each china house. Where there are discrepancies, there will be linked cross-references. I have ignored the text on each certificate [except the thimble patterns descriptions] as it is often has conflicting information.

As well as offering thimbles by the month, TCC also offered sets for sale. I have compiled a database for you to download. TCC sets updated August 2011.
Requires Adobe Acrobat download download Adobe Acrobat

China and porcelain thimble collecting came to its zenith during the 1980s and there were hundreds of different maker's marks or backstamps to collect. The Thimble Collectors Club fostered this passion and found many new "thimbles makers" for their Club members. In 1986 Royal Worcester stopped making thimbles to be followed by Wedgwood (1991 though this was revived in 2000), Spode (1992) and Caverswall (1993).

It must have been very difficult for the Club to continue to find new sources with this trend of closures. Was this when the practice began, of one thimble manufacturer using new backstamps other than their own, to inflate the number of new makers? MAYBE they were even selling their backstamps, tho no longer interested making thimbles themselves? Doesn't this make a bit of a mockery of the whole scheme?

Anyone who has tried to follow the takeovers and amalgamations of china manufacturers in the 1980s, in the wider field outside thimbles, will know that this is a vast field even for the experts. Royal Doulton has a huge list in their stable, but they have never been prolific thimble makers. For thimbles, shape is predominant and the dominant makers have specific thimble shapes that identify them immediately.

Welsh thimbles, made by Heritage Coast China, include the following backstamps:

Afan Valley
Ammonite Studio
Avonvale
Celtic Cross
Green Isaf Farm Pottery
Kingfisher Pottery
Kingston Pottery
Platypus Gallery
St Donats
St Illtyd
Vale
Westbury Studio
Wyeside
Yr Felin Wynt

Some of their patterns - Blue Satsuma, Welsh Poppy, Brambles/Blackberry Bush, Old Mill, Hazelnut - even appear with the differing backstamps of Avonvale / Heritage Coast, St Donats / Glyn-Coch, Afan Valley / Wyeside, Heart of England / Westbury and Celtic Cross / Wyeside respectively.

I imagine that the decals created were jealously guarded by their creators, but some are in the public domain. I presume that Gien first made the design Lilypad, and that this was purchased by Vale? What about the identical Songbird produced by both Revol and Carl Schumann? And Blue Floral by Bordeaux - the same decal as Revol's Blue Onion!! And Birds of Paradise by Scherzer and Schumann's Parrots - identical thimbles with differing backstamps!

Sutherland China can be identified by thimbles with crystals or their thimbles made in distinctive shapes, or shaped apexes. They have used the additional maker's marks:

Accorn
Bell & Co
Bell Vue
Blossom China
Blyth Works
Bow
Branksome Ceramics
Brimstone Fine China
Britannia China Company
Brown-Westhead, Moore & Co
Cambellfield
Castle Pottery
Ceramart
Chelsea
Davenport
Don Pottery
Dorset
Dublin Pottery
Empress Porcelain
Fenton
Francesca China
George Jones
Hanbridge Fine Ceramics
Herculaneum Ceramics
Hilditch & Son
Ironstone China
Isle of Wight
John and Richard Riley
Lockhart
Longton Hall
Mercia Crown
Nautilus Pottery
Nouveau Pottery
Northfield Hawley
Oak Tree China
Orb Pottery
Ralph Stevenson
Rockingham
Rose China
Royal Westminster
Seacombe
Thomas Greene
Tulip Fine China
Whieldon Ware
I am sure there are more!! - including those made by supposed European manufacturers: see the list below!

Bow and Chelsea both have Fluted Floral thimbles, though the flowers depicted are different; Davenport / Sutherland have Playing Cards; Sutherland / Rockingham's Still Life are the same decal. There is an identical decal and shape in the Tropical Fish by Sutherland and Whielden. Compare Unicorn for Britannia China and Chelsea!!
Another clue to this practice is the wording "produced in homage ..." - "a thimble in tribute ..." - "in the style of ..." etc. on the certificates. Maybe the maker's name was even fictitious?

In the 1998 and 2002 range Sutherland would also have made the following "European" thimbles:-

Charmaine [France]
Empress [Czech Republic]
Fleur [France]
Katerina [Russia]
Tulip [Holland]
Wiener-Kirsch [Vienna]
I am sure there are more of this type for other years too!!

I am more familiar with the English brands on china and porcelain thimbles, but if this practice was encouraged/abetted by TCC, what was to stop the prolific German and Japanese thimble makers, from doing the same? Check some of the German thimbles for yourself: Lindner - Eminence Ludwig - Gossel - Reutter. Then there are the Czechoslovakian Bohemia and Thun with identical decals for the Entertainers/Court Figures!!
Stoke-on-Trent's equivalent in Japan is Seto, where most of Japanese porcelain is made. Iwasa in Tajimi (close to Seto) made thimbles for TCC probably with the additional backstamps of Koyomi, Shibata, Marutoyo and Yamasan. Did Sutherland China make these thimbles as well?

Another theory is that these thimbles, that were initially made for TCC, reached a wider market after their contract with TCC ceased. If the decals remained in their possession, there was nothing to stop them marketing them after TCC's closure, with whichever maker's mark they chose! Some of these designs are still being made today, even tho TCC has long gone.

Thimble boxes for the TCC thimbles are another clue to their origins and date. In the 1980s and into the mid 1990s, the thimble boxes supplied with the thimbles were the same brand as the thimble. Later boxes were the generic blue thimble boxes lettered with 'Thimble Collectors Club'. Was this because there was no manufacturer with the thimble brand's name?

Thimble Collectors Club box (L) - Oakley China (R)

To date, I estimate there were over 550 different thimbles issued by TCC, between the early 1980s and 2003. Because there are so many TCC thimbles, I have tried to keep to one view per thimble.

For those who were members of TCC, I wonder if you joined their thimble Club using one of these flyers?

This page would never have been possible without the generosity of two collectors who have collected this information to share with us all: neither collected them on a monthly basis, so the research they have both done is mind-boggling.

Over more than a five-year period, with the help of so many collectorw listed below, we are now only missing 4 photos. What we are now needing is more copies of missing Certificates!! Less than 100 to find now!! Until we have all the certificates, some of the names may be little more than a description!! If you have the correct name, please share!!

Since the beginning of 2009 I have been sent many photos of thimbles for inclusion in these pages that have previously been unrecorded. Why is this only happening now? Most are in the blue TCC thimble boxes. I have included them in these pages - BUT BUYER BEWARE. Unless there is an accompanying TCC leaflet, I cannot substantiate that these were one of the thimbles included in the TCC. Hence my plea for the sharing of more TCC certificates!

Was it just the different countries' Clubs that led to the identically-titled thimble being produced slightly differently? Maybe both versions came out of the same manufacturing house but at different times - one for the UK market and one for the US market? So far this has been noticed in similar but different versions - Akemi | Gossell | Jaeger | Lin | Pickard | Royal Westminster | Schwarzenhammer | Thun. Your version may still be correct - it just was made for a different club??!!

In February 2011 some TCC thimbles have started to appear for sale on eBay ... "We recently purchased an entire thimble collection from the Thimble Collectors Club. It comes with original box and certificate. Used for display purposes only ..." As the seller is from the USA, maybe these were from the US TCC? It has come to my attention that a few of the thimbles are different from the thimbles offered for sale by the US Club. Where possible I have included these "different designs", as they may be prototypes?

a - b - c - d - e - f - g - h - i - j - k - l - m - n - o - p - q - r - s - t - u - v - w - x - y - z
LISTED IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER WHERE POSSIBLE
CLICK ON A LETTER TO GO THE CORRESPONDING PAGE

DO YOU KNOW ANY MORE DETAILS ABOUT THE THIMBLE COLLECTORS CLUB?
DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER TCC THIMBLES NOT MENTIONED?
DO YOU HAVE ANY OTHER TCC THIMBLES NOT PICTURED?
EMAIL thimbleselect@bigpond.com TO SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGE.

Contributors

This listing of Thimble Collectors Club thimbles does not purport to be complete or accurate in all aspects. Rather it invites comment and contribution to add to our knowledge. My thanks to the other contributors

Enjoy!

Any questions or comments?
thimbleselect@bigpond.com
I do not offer any type of valuation or advice on prices.

Last updated 5 December 2011
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