Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. the eyes [1940s use is US black].

1654		E. Gayton Pleasant Notes II v 56: His Dulcinea’s twinklers enlarged to the full breadth of Queen Prosperpines sawcers.
a.1704		T. Brown Select Epistles in Works (1760) I 234: I no sooner saw your Ladyship, but those everlasting Murderers, your twinklers, prick’d and stabb’d me in a thousand Parts of my body.
1709		S. Centlivre Busy Body Act V: There was a consenting Look with those pretty Twinklers, worth a Million.
1770		T. Chatterton Revenge II i: Scrape ye fidlers, tinkle, tinkle, / Music makes my twinklers twinkle.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1837		Marryat Snarleyyow I 246: You’ll just be pleased to keep your two eyes upon your prisoner, and not be staring at me, following me up and down, as you do, with those twinklers of yours.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.
1944		‘Jiver’s Bible’ in D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive.

2. the stars.

1705		Vanbrugh Confederacy II ii: aram.: The Stars have done this. clar.: The pretty little Twinklers.
1813		Shelley Queen Mab ix n.p.: Such tiny twinklers as the planet-orbs [F&H].
1938		W. Winchell On Broadway 9 May [synd. col.] Burns Mantle gave it [i.e. a play under review] two twinklers, which are no better than a glove across the face.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 111: [We would] blow our tops under the twinklers, shooting riffs at the moon.

3. diamonds.

1903		Ade People You Know 204: She has a Gray-Squirrel Coat, an Auto Car, $11,000 worth of Twinklers.
1916		T. Burke Limehouse Nights 253: Bert went for ’er and swabbed the twinklers.
1920		Ade Hand-made Fables 282: The Good Woman had, by Frugality and Perserverance, accumulated over two Quarts of Twinklers, some of them running as large as Pecans.