Thimble press

The Thimble Press was an 18th-century printing device thought to be invented by Jefferson Hume, a Scottish engineer.

Resembling a thimble in shape, the metal container was worn over a finger and used to imprint ornate drop capital characters onto formal manuscripts. The metal character templates were attached to the thimble press via a small ratchet lever.

The device rapidly became redundant with the development of advanced lithography towards the end of the 18th century. With a production lifecycle of just a year or two, very few such devices were ever made, and are considered somewhat of a collector's item today, fetching auction values of several thousand pounds per press.