Portmeirion Collectors Thimble, Heartsease, SM-MI 159
Portmeirion
A Vintage Portmeirion Thimble, Heartsease. Designed By Susan Williams-Ellis.
These china thimbles were made for the Portmeirion collectors club.
The china thimble will be supplied with a signed certificate of authenticity.
Approx Dimensions :-
1 in (2.5 cm) tall
0.75 in (2 cm) diam
Thimbles
In 1985, the Thimble Collectors Club of Surrey, commissioned Portmeirion to exclusively produce for them a thimble bearing a motif from the Botanic Garden range. Portmeirion created a thimble for them featuring a very small transfer of the purple and yellow heartsease, edging the thimble in gold. This thimble was to be part of a collection of thimbles from well known potteries in Stoke such as Wedgewood and Spode. The Heartsease thimble was a huge hit with members of the Thimble Collectors Club and later that year they again approached Portmeirion to commission a further set of twelve thimbles, all with miniature versions of the Botanic Garden flower motifs. They would be supplied with a polished mahogany rack in which to display them. Each thimble featured a cut down version of the folowing designs: Barbados Cotton Flower, Broom, Common Tormentil, Daisy, Germander Speedwell, Honeysuckle, Iris, Ivy Leafed Cyclamen, Rhododendron, Scarlet Pimpernel, Spring Gentian and Star Anenome. As the thimble was not a standard Portmeirion shape, it was likely that the blanks were supplied by the club for Portmeirion to decorate. The club is no longer in existance and although the Heartsease thimble can be found fairly often, the other twelve designs are quite difficult to locate, and makes collecting them quite a challenge!