Thimble the Fingers

Two-part cylindrical box, 4.5-inch diameter, 1.25" tall, with color lithograph lid graphic and box insert with two wooden numbs and two small thimbles. A novelty dexterity game requiring players to manipulate the box and mount the thimbles on the nubs, creating the effect of two thimbled fingers sticking out. Tidy pencil restoration to an abrasion on the lid graphic (over the ring finger); light chipping around the edges of the box. Pencil marking on the lid and a contemporary gift inscription to the bottom of the box--difficult to make out: "For [Jennifer?] to add to your [?] for children."

Written up in The Bookseller, Newsdealer and Stationer in June 1903 (p.264): "Joseph Koehler has brought out a new puzzle which will commend itself to the young or the old people who like to practice at feats that require great patience and careful manipulation, rather than strength, and the large sales of all such puzzles. like "Pigs in Clover," show that the number of such people is much larger than one would suppose. The new puzzle is one of the best of its class and is called "Thimble the Fingers." It consists of a box and two ordinary thimbles. On the bottom of the box is the figure of a hand on two fingers of which are wooden knobs. The feat is by manipulation of the box to throw both thimbles over the knobs. To the beginner or the inexpert it appears well nigh impossible but steady nerves and patience soon accomplishes it."