GILT BUTTON..NEED HELP WITH ID PLEASE?

[OUTCOME1]

IT SAYS GILT AT THE TOP..HARD TO SEE IN THE PIC, IM SORRY. AND IT HAS A FEW STARS AND ANOTHER DESIGN GOING AROUND THE OUTSIDE.....THE FRONT HAS NO VIEWABLE DESIGN. IT IS PLAIN BRASS IT APPEARS.

 

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[DCMatt]

Mid 18th to mid 19th C gilt flat button. What else do you need to know?

I'm more interested in the little square piece in pic #1. It looks like an apothecary weight. Any markings on it?

DCMatt

 

[OUTCOME1]

yeah, thats an apothecary eight. there is a marking but it is hard to read. it is on one side like a small tamp marking in addition to the stamp hole type marks

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Because so many newcomers ask for identification and time-dating of these brass 1-piece "flatbuttons," pardon me for just doing a cut-&-paste from one of my previous replies.

The backmark saying "GILT" is a Quality Rating used by British (and eventually, American) button manufacturing companies, which refers to the quality-level of the goldplating (gilt) or silverplating on these 1-piece brass buttons. A few of the many other examples are:
Standard Quality (often abbreviated as STANDd -- note the small letter d)
Extra Quality
Superior Quality
Superfine Quality
Fine Gilt
Double Gilt
Treble Gilt
Treble Plated (at that time, "Plated" referred only to silver, not gold)

Being a brass (not pewter) 1-piece button, with an indented-lettering (not raised-lettering) backmark, and dug in the US (not in Britain/UnitedKingdom or Canada) your button dates from approximately 1810 into the early-1830s. Note, if the backmark is written in raised lettering the button can date from as early as the 1790s.

Your 1-piece brass flatbutton is most probably British-made, because millions of them were imported here during that time-period, due to the fledging American button-making industry's inability to mass-produce enough to satisfy the demand for them from the clothing-making industry.