Two Horse gold layered Levi Strauss button? Any info...?

[burlbark]

I had 4 hour hunt today in a forgotten Northern California Ghost town. Many pocket watches, scraps of brass, wheat cents and costume jewelry. But this took top find. Does anyone know anything about it? Its a two piece and the gold appears pretty thick.

 

[Jose The Goon]

"burlbark", I find your button very interesting. I'm sure you searched, like i did, and had a hard time finding a match for your button. It looks old & could be one of the rare ones but I came up empty in my searches.
I think your best bet would be to email the Levi Strauss Company Headquarters with your story of where you found it & the picture of it that you posted here for us. Very cool find & congrats !!
Hopefully they can fill you in on the details & the age of your button.
Here's a link for you: https://corporateofficeheadquarters.org/levi-strauss-company/ On second thought, it looks like there is no email or fax info available in the link. Maybe a snail-mail letter with photo to the company or its' CEO (Chip Bergh) might be fruitful. I'm sure someone would be interested.
Good luck.

 

[Gare]

very nice Thanks for sharing

 

[Digger RJ]

I had 4 hour hunt today in a forgotten Northern California Ghost town. Many pocket watches, scraps of brass, wheat cents and costume jewelry. But this took top find. Does anyone know anything about it? Its a two piece and the gold appears pretty thick.


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Nice!!! Congrats!!!

 

[tamrock]

Nice find.

 

[villagenut]

......could be a rare one. Very nice. Did you clean it or did it come out of the ground like that. Wonder if it's gold plated?

 

[Molewacker]

Little info from Levi page - hope it helps!

Everyone who has worn Levi’s® 501® original jeans contributed to their ever-changing story, and this season brings a first: limited edition Celebration 501® jeans featuring exclusive gold-plated buttons and Levi’s® proprietary selvedge.

“We recently discovered a pair of deadstock 1947 501® jeans, meaning that they’ve never been worn. Any denim aficionado will recognize the 47’s as ‘grail jeans’ and to find a pair in headstock condition is unbelievable,” Jonathan said. “What we found was that the buttons on this special pair had oxidized to a gold color – so we replicated the golden hue for this limited edition.”

 

[camichael]

My son is the store designer for Levi. I'll send him the photos. I do know that Two Horses was their brand name a hundred years ago. They also didn't have belt loops back then...

 

[burlbark]

From the limited information I can gather on this is that it was produced after 1853 and before 1873 with no other examples known. I have contacted the Levis Historical Branch and am looking forward to what they have to say. I did find a recreation of the button on imitation first generation pants, not gold layered and not as curved.

This button was found in a discarded bottle dump down stream from an old forgotten goldmine using the Deus 2. My two hunting buddies ran their EQ800 over the area for about an hour and then they let me see what I could. They did pull 4 wheats, an Indian and a 1917 Merc before I got there. Button was 5-6" down and was hit using the fast program with x/y screen.

 

[Red-Coat]

From the limited information I can gather on this is that it was produced after 1853 and before 1873

Very cool button, which I'm sure would have a high interest from collectors.

I'm doubtful about that dating though. Levi Strauss & Co filed the registration for “TWO HORSE” as a trademark on 2nd June 1917 (granted 11th December 1917). First use of the mark in commerce (ie unregistered) was claimed to be 1907 in the application.

 

[Jorgeke]

I had 4 hour hunt today in a forgotten Northern California Ghost town. Many pocket watches, scraps of brass, wheat cents and costume jewelry. But this took top find. Does anyone know anything about it? Its a two piece and the gold appears pretty thick.


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Congrats

Great finding

 

[burlbark]

Little info from Levi page - hope it helps!

Everyone who has worn Levi’s® 501® original jeans contributed to their ever-changing story, and this season brings a first: limited edition Celebration 501® jeans featuring exclusive gold-plated buttons and Levi’s® proprietary selvedge.

“We recently discovered a pair of deadstock 1947 501® jeans, meaning that they’ve never been worn. Any denim aficionado will recognize the 47’s as ‘grail jeans’ and to find a pair in headstock condition is unbelievable,” Jonathan said. “What we found was that the buttons on this special pair had oxidized to a gold color – so we replicated the golden hue for this limited edition.”

The recreations are for the 501's and they do not have the "Two Horse" Button.

Levi's has already contacted me...😯 Button will have a new home soon.

 

[burlbark]

Very cool button, which I'm sure would have a high interest from collectors.

I'm doubtful about that dating though. Levi Strauss & Co filed the registration for “TWO HORSE” as a trademark on 2nd June 1917 (granted 11th December 1917). First use of the mark in commerce (ie unregistered) was claimed to be 1907 in the application.

Two Horse was used by Levi's from the inception of the their jean manufacturing and was applied to a patch on the back of the jeans from 1873 to 1891. By 1886 the Two Horse Motto was in full swing. So many of the records where lost in the 1906 fire they are still putting it all together. The Levi's historical branch contacted me 4 hours ago, button will have new home.

 

[vpnavy]

I searched Google and found...

Levi's Two Horse LS & Co Brand Jean in size 30

​

 

[E-Trac-Ohio]

Very cool !

 

[villagenut]

I read that Levi Strauss first used the two horse pull I age in 1886, but they may not have had it named as the two horse brand until later years as Redcoat stated. Either way it is a pretty neat buton that I failed to find online anywhere. So.....what did LS and co tell you Don't leave us in suspense..lol

 

[villagenut]

While I failed, VP Navy succeeded.

 

[burlbark]

T

I searched Google and found...

Levi's Two Horse LS & Co Brand Jean in size 30
View attachment 2032839View attachment 2032841



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That is the recreation example made in China that is gold colored. It is not the original gold layered button.

 

[burlbark]

While I failed, VP Navy succeeded.

You didnt fail at it... There are presently no other examples remaining. The reproduction posted above is gold toned and made in China attempting to recreate the Goldrush era jean. Just look at the difference in gold toned vs real gold layered.

 

[Red-Coat]

Two Horse was used by Levi's from the inception of the their jean manufacturing and was applied to a patch on the back of the jeans from 1873 to 1891. By 1886 the Two Horse Motto was in full swing. So many of the records where lost in the 1906 fire they are still putting it all together. The Levi's historical branch contacted me 4 hours ago, button will have new home.

Is that from the LS historians or from elsewhere? It wouldn't be my understanding and I could find nothing on their website about brand history which says so. The use of the logo with two horses as a brand, yes... but not the words "TWO HORSE" as a brand or part of the brand. Like this:



The US Patent and Trademark Office database only shows the words as a brand being registered in 1917 with a claimed history of 1907 earliest in the trademark application. Their records weren't lost in a fire: