✅ SOLVED A little button

CoilyGirl

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Location
Nashville
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2
Detector(s) used
Minelab x-Terra 505
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting

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Can't hep ya ma'am, but ah do want ya ta know yer in a polite society. My wife's from Scott County, still has a bunch of cousins
living there.
 

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Why thank ya mate!
 

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CG, I'm not the button person, but I think this button is French and was made during the later half of the 19th century.
Neat find :)
Breezie
 

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Not sure how to date those other than looking up the Company name but I know some date to the 1850's
 

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Thanks Kuger and Breezy.
 

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Neat button, I've never found one of those with gold gilt.
 

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A long lost cousin:

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"A very rare & highly desirable button!!! I found this button{metal detecting} along with the ''I'' button that is listed years ago in downtown Macon,Ga. Reads: SHEA & POWELL MACON Back: TURNER & CO. PATENT It is un-listed in Alberts book of buttons! I did find a 1860's newspaper advertisement that showed that this company was in Macon,Ga. & sold clothing & other items!! ..." From.

The "Patent" makes me think British, Breezie. There was one dug in Argyll, which I assume is Scotland:

"One complete 19th/20th century cast machine-made brass button was found with the makers mark 'TURNER & Co PATENT' (Cuddeford 1994, 15, no 29)." http://highmorlaggan.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/High-Morlaggan-metal-report_Dawn-McLaren1.pdf

There's this: http://www.buttoncrs.com/pdffiles/rowley15nov1842152.pdf from Patents from the United Kingdom

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According to the following website, your 4-hole button was made in Britain, sometime between 1843 and many-many decades later. The website shows a 4-hole brass button marked "Turner & Co. Patent", as yours is marked. Keep in mind, Patented objects were often manufactured for many decades after the Patent for them was issued. For example, the 1861-patent Mason jars were made (with that marking) for many decades afterward. That patent-date does NOT mean the jar was made during the civil war. See button f13s at the website's photos of British-patented buttons. Patents from the United Kingdom

The "Browne / Nashville" on the other side of the button is most probably the name of a tailor/clothing shop which ordered your 4-hole button from Turner & Co.

For anybody here who doesn't already know:
The great majority of button-backmarks do not tell the name of the button's manufacturer -- but instead, tell the name of a button-dealer, tailor, or clothing-supplier company who ordered the buttons from the manufacturer. Perhaps the most famous example of that in the civil war button-collecting field is the "Hyde & Goodrich / New Orleans" backmark on various civil war era southern State Seal buttons, such as Louisiana and Mississippi Infantry buttons. In actuality, Hyde & Goodrich did not manufacture any buttons... all of the Hyde & Goodrich backmark buttons were made by the Scovill Manufacturing Co in Waterbury Connecticut.

Also, the various Horstmann companies (Horstmann & Allien, Horstmann & Sons, Horstmann Bros. & Co., etc) never manufactured any buttons. They were produced by actual button-makers such as the Waterbury Button Co. and the Scovill Mfg. Company.

Edit: Surf and I were typing at the same time. But I am much more long-winded than he is. ;-) I tend to add "educational" info like the examples of backmarks which tell a store's name instead of the name of the button's manufacturer.
 

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John Browne, Merchant Tailor does show in the 1860 Nashville Directory (listing) and he is in business at least until 1885(picture ad).
 

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Well, well done, CannonballGuy & Bramblefind!

Mr. John Browne completely eluded me, but I did see way more of Jackson Browne than I'm used to. 8-)

Thanks, gentlemen!

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Oops! My apologies, Lady Bramblefind.

And, a very smart one.

I've definitely noticed this.

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Thank you friends for putting together the pieces of this puzzle.
 

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