Another button

Justice70 · Oct 3, 2009

Hey guys, I have another button that hopefully someone can help me with. You guys confirmed my suspicion on the other button I posted, civilian dress button circa 1920-1940. This one though,I have no idea about. A magnet will not stick to it and it appears to be somewhat crudely made,poured?The diagram on the front makes no sence to me although it sort of reminds me of a butterfly.Found last year at an older city park.

CRUSADER · Oct 3, 2009

Looks like pot metal & tries to imitate a late 18th century pewter mould type button but.... it looks like a modern design with some sort of black lacker on it :icon_scratch:

Bit of an oddball but is still probably the same period as the other one.

Bigcypresshunter · Oct 3, 2009

I agree an old mold type pewter button with black japanning.

Justice70 · Oct 6, 2009

It does not seem logical that anyone would have japanned this button.Japanning was mostly used to preserve wood and to keep metal objects from rusting.If this button is pewter it would not rust anyway.The design is actually etched into the button.I'm guessing hand etched.If this was japanned for decorative purposes,would that mean the button has any significance being how japanning is a bit of a deailed task involving multiple layers to complete?

Woodland Detectors · Oct 6, 2009

IMO----Nope

Decorative

Bigcypresshunter · Oct 6, 2009

Rookie2 said:
It does not seem logical that anyone would have japanned this button.Japanning was mostly used to preserve wood and to keep metal objects from rusting.If this button is pewter it would not rust anyway.The design is actually etched into the button.I'm guessing hand etched.If this was japanned for decorative purposes,would that mean the button has any significance being how japanning is a bit of a deailed task involving multiple layers to complete?

Maybe you prefer to use the word "painted" instead. My understanding is that "japanning" is just black or blue paint applied in layers and it looks as if it was at one time painted black. I dont know what you mean by etched but this button was made in a mould. You can clearly see the mould mark on the backside along with remains of the black laquer/paint. I dont know why it was painted, probably for decorative purposes, but pewter will corrode. It looks like it was at one time a pretty shiny black civilian womans dress button. :icon_thumright: