Bike badge

[nicklpc]

I think this is a bike badge from a Butler Record Racer made for 1 year only in 1896 by the Butler Company in Butler IN? I can't find any pictures of it and no one can tell me what it's worth? Any help would be great!!!

 

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[surf]

I think this is a bike badge from a Butler Record Racer made for 1 year only in 1896 by the Butler Company in Butler IN?

Hello nicklpc,

Welcome to TNet, and thanks for showing us your Butler badge. I think your "1 year only" premise may be wrong, as I saw refernces spread out over a few years. The Butler Co. published a booklet in 1895: The Butler Co: Manufacturers of Record Bicycles, 1895 - Butler Co. (Butler, Ind.) - Google Books and here's a mention in an 1898 ad: Review of Reviews and World's Work - January 1898.

This 1897 listing in Sporting Life, describes them as having 9 models, "Model B is finished in four coats of light green enamel, handsomely decorated and striped..." Sporting life, 1897

I think you may wanna contact Hoosier Bicycles for more information.

I couldn't find a photo of the bicycle either. Here's a discussion elsewhere that mentions the Record & there may be photos there, though one has to join the site to view it: Butler Record?? [Archive] - The Classic and Antique Bicycle Exchange

"Butler Record Racer-(M) Butler Company, Butler IN, 1896" is the listing: Wheelmen listings

"The company was known as Butler Manufacturing Co. in 1888, but the name was changed to the Butler Co. when Knisely acquired it in 1894. The company made and sold "wind engines," or windmills, as well as all of the equipment to go with them.

Change wasn't long in coming.

Bicycling became popular in the 1890s, so the company added the Record bicycle to its product line.

The 20th century had barely dawned when the market shifted to the manufacturing of buggies, the forerunners of automobiles. Most haven't survived, but Phillips has found two buggies that she hopes to have restored.

"They made buggies the same time as the Eckharts in Auburn," Phillips said.

Despite the expansions, it would be windmills that gained the company a world-wide reputation. The company stayed on the leading edge of windmill technology, researching and developing improvements to its models. It also carried the accessories - hand pumps, pneumatic water pumps, storage tanks, hog feeders, and livestock watering tanks. A pneumatic pump sold for $42, according to a 1933 advertisement." Gone with the wind <<< a good, but brief Butler Co. history.

So how did you come upon this badge?

 

[HutSiteDigger]

I've bought a few similar manufacturing badges from the late 19th and early 20th C. in the past @ flea markets from anywhere from $3 to $20! I can not pull up much vintage artifacts from The Butler Co. so there is nothing to really compare it too but maybe there are a few die hard vintage bike collectors out there that would kill for this badge. Good luck with it!