Charles Horner Ltd.

Charles Horner (English, 1821–1896), trained as a “watchmaker, jeweler, and silversmith” and was listed thus in early directories of Halifax, in Yorkshire, England, as well as in its 1871 census. After his training, he set up a firm to retail and manufacture jewelry, watches and small silver articles in Halifax in about 1867. Horner developed a line of good-quality jewelry aimed at the middle market, to be produced with some handcrafting, but increasingly through mass-production techniques. His best-known product outside of jewelry was the Dorcas thimble, a revolutionary idea that resulted in a more functional yet still decorative personal item. His invention was to make a thimble with three layers of... more.