Button ID Anyone?

[Swartzie]

Found this button along the Ohio-Erie canal today around an area that recently had some excavating going on. Very shallow only about an inch deep. I can't make out what the top part reads, but I can almost see the word "gilt" at the end.

Mostly interested in a date for the button.

Btw, does anyone use electrolysis on buttons? This is my first time trying a button and it almost makes it look too clean. Doesn't have that old look like some of my other buttons do. Perhaps I'll just use electro on iron. Live and learn.

 

[Woodland Detectors]

WAIT! lol Clean with a toothpic...Button must be (dry) and "pick" away easy! That is probably the best method I've tried. Courtesy: Buckleboy

I was going to ask if that button was dug or not....I must say though if you like shiny that's probably the way to do it eh? But, your value of that button is G-o-n=e. You may have had a valuable button. Your button reads double gilt colour edge.Also we need a front picture.


The first wonderfully sparkly gilt buttons were made in Birmingham between 1797 and 1800. They were elegant, yet affordable. People took to them immediately, and they became the height of fashion. Even the Americans began making gilt buttons by 1810, after stealing the gilding secret from the British!

Actually, the process was a fairly simple one. Five grains of gold per gross (144) of buttons was added to a mixture of mercury, then brushed on the brass buttons, which were then cooked in a furnace. Buttons could be double gilt, triple gilt, and so on, depending on the number of grains or number of brushings used.

 

[BuckleBoy]

Your find is a fairly common "flat button." Here's some good reading material, so that you'll be "in the loop" when you make the BIG button recovery. There are a lot of before/after photos in the replies as well.

http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/topic,165857.0.html


Best Wishes,


Buckleboy