✅ SOLVED Looking for an aprox date on this button.

[prolab69]

The reverse is solid rust, I think it`s Baltimore & Ohio railroad related, but not sure.
Thank you.

 

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[cmthunder]

Don’t know but really cool button.

 

[Mud Hut]

It is a 1920's overall button by Southern Overall Company (formerly Baltimore Overall Company) for their B&O Brand overalls, which had nothing to do with the B&O Railroad.

 

[Red-Coat]

Well, that's the cupola of the Baltimore City Hall which the Baltimore & Ohio railroad used as their logo, but I'm confused by the letters M.F.G.CO at the top.



The B & O certainly expanded their operations by a series of mergers and partnerships to the extent that over the years there have been dozens of now defunct railroad companies operating as part of the B & O network but I can't find any reference to a company with those initials.

I can't help with the age of the button but, to add to the mystery, here's a similar one with company initials of S.O. Co. and I can't find any reference to that company either.



I thought at first that your button said "B & O BRANCH", which would have made sense but it's clearer from the S.O. Co. button the the word is "BRAND" not "BRANCH", which makes rather less sense if it's from a railroad company. That button was also believed by the seller to be related to the B & O Railroad, but no view was given on exactly how it's related, nor on the date for the button.

 

[Red-Coat]

Ah... Mud Hut replied while I was composing my post. Makes complete sense now, and the S.O. Co is for the Southern Overalls Company.

 

[Red-Coat]

Coming back to the question of date, it seems that the Baltimore Overall Manufacturing Company had gone bust by 1913. They were the subject of an adjudication on 24th June 1913 relating to payment of a dividend to a stakeholder while in receivership, in which it was stated that they were “an insolvent corporation and now in the hands of receivers, appointed by the Circuit Court of Baltimore City, to administer and wind up its affairs, under the supervision of that Court.”

The Southern Overall Company must have been in existence before that since there are trademark applications by the company from at least as early as 7th February 1911. Perhaps they bought out the remaining assets and trademarks of the Baltimore Overall Manufacturing Company in 1913.