Help with these buttons please ....

[ott]

Hi please could anyone help me on these .
number (4) measures about 15mm and seems to be gilt ?
number (5) measures 16mm and shows bottom lefthand corner an Irish harp and to the right and top left shows three lions .

please help as again i`m stumped !

 

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[CC Hunter]

The buttons follow the style of manufacturing popular in the first half of the 19th Century, and continuing with use thereafter.
The designs appear to be military or similar, rather than simple civilian type decorative buttons of the era.

My familiarity with British and European buttons is rather limited at best.

Here is a great database though, of recovered buttons from the UK, that may lend a more informative lead for your inquiry:

UK Finds Database - - - UKDFD

Try the forums under Uniform-Military or Uniform-Commercial, Leisure, Public Sector

Best of luck in your search, with hopes of locating a correct identification.

CC Hunter

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

I agree with CC Hunter, early-1800s buttons. But the first button is not military, it is a British Livery button, worn on the uniforms of household servants (butler, coachman, etc) of British Nobility families. On your Livery button, the family's coat-of-arms/crest is topped by a coronet -- which does not mean the same thing as a crown. The number of balls (called "pearls") atop the coronet signifies its rank:
4 pearls = Baron
5 pearls = Earl
7 pearls = Viscount
Unfortunately, I cannot recall what rank nine pearls represented.

I can't quite make out what the motto (in the circle) on your button says. If you can read it, do a websearch for the motto, which can identify the family crest.

The second button seems to show the emblems of three of the "regions" of Great Britain. The lions-passant (walking lions) repesent England/ The harp repesents Ireland. I can't make out the third emblem.

 

[CC Hunter]

The detail clarification of a coronet vs. crown, is a key point provided by TheCannonballGuy.

Here is a link to the UK database of recovered Livery buttons:

UK Finds Database - - - UKDFD

The second button seems to show the emblems of three of the "regions" of Great Britain. The lions-passant (walking lions) represent England/ The harp represents Ireland. I can't make out the third emblem.

Attributing the design detail on the second button to the quarterlings featured in the shield of the Royal Arms of Great Britain is indeed correct. The other emblem would be the Rampant Lion representing Scotland.

Shield of the Royal Arms

CC Hunter

 

[ott]

thankyou for your help much appreciated.

 

[tennessee digger]

CC Hunter and Cannonball Guy are amazing! Glad they are on this forum.