One of my best finds! Late 1700's Mourning Button.

[Donnie B from VA]

This little cuff sized Mourning Button is one of my best, and favorite, finds. I found it last year at a cellar hole in Connecticut. My good friend, Brian, found a GW button at this site and I have always wondered if my button has some connection to George Washington. It has all of the hall marks of a button that would be used to honor the memory of someone who served in the military.

It has a funeral urn set inside a sunken Federal Era shield with what I think are laurel leaves on each side of the urn. It is cuff size and has no backmark. I believe it is late 1700's based on the lack of the back mark and the other finds found at the site. I have tried to find old newspaper advertisements from the period immediately after the death of George Washington in 1799 in order to see if my button may have been one of the mourning items sold to honor his memory. I have had no success, to date, in locating anything that would connect my button. There is, at least, one mourning button and a set of mourning cuff links attributed to George Washington on some sites. I think those were attributed by newspaper advertisements. If anyone has any information, I would be very happy to hear it.

 

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[Javadroid]

What a great find! I love how you are tracking down the history -- it makes the treasure all the more valuable! Congrats!

 

[Donnie B from VA]

What a great find! I love how you are tracking down the history -- it makes the treasure all the more valuable! Congrats!

Thank you. I am hoping that someone out there may have access to some circa 1800 button advertisements as that may be my only chance to attribute the button.