My Half Dozen Early New England Shoe Buckles

[Deleted member 140734]

In the ten months since I started metal detecting I have found these six shoe buckles. Always excited to find them. Someday I hope to score one made of silver.

 

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[xcopperstax]

Very nice! I was never much of a buckle guy until I found a complete buckle. Then I became super interested in them. Funny how it works like that sometimes. You have some nice one's here! I've got two completes and two matching frames from the same site. I'm still looking for a knee buckle, a silver buckle and what I want to find the most is a spectacle buckle! Good luck on this silver!

 

[Deleted member 140734]

I really like finding them because they mean I'm probably close to a home site. Since these are not fragments they were probably from home sites whereas pieces are usually chewed up from plowing. There is good reliable research showing the age ranges within a couple of decades so they are great signposts for dating debris fields. Have you seen any of this research with the styles and time frames? I also know of a New Englander who scours yard sales and occasionally finds great vintage non-dug buckles for mere dollars.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

Congrats on the awesome relics!

 

[VTColonialDigger]

Some really beautiful shoe buckles!! Is there any way you could post a close up of the one on the bottom left? My buddy and I have found numerous fragments and one whole frame with a similar design. All of them in a localized area of Vermont, we are thinking a local maker.

 

[xcopperstax]

I really like finding them because they mean I'm probably close to a home site. Since these are not fragments they were probably from home sites whereas pieces are usually chewed up from plowing. There is good reliable research showing the age ranges within a couple of decades so they are great signposts for dating debris fields. Have you seen any of this research with the styles and time frames? I also know of a New Englander who scours yard sales and occasionally finds great vintage non-dug buckles for mere dollars.

I've looked at that historic buckle book that is out there and that handy chart that can easily be looked up online. That's how I try to date mine. That would be pretty cool to find one at a yardsale. What would also be neat is to find one still attached to the shoe or boot it belonged on. I'm sure there are some in waterlogged environments that are still there!