✅ SOLVED unknown 3 piece cuff button

[relic lover]

I'm hoping it's a military button. it looks like a staff button of some sort

 

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[HutSiteDigger]

Looks like a Civilian flower button with back-mark would be from about 1830s+.. I actually just dug a few of similar buttons today in Virginia and find these type buttons all the time http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/today-s-finds/345678-pile-flat-civilian-buttons.html So I do not think this is military but I will go through my button book to double check or cannonballguy can correct me but im 90% sure it is civilian!

 

[nhbenz]

GAR is the Grand Army of the Republic, a post Civil War veterans group. I believe your button would be considered 2-piece, as the shank/loop doensn't count
updated: I think now that I was incorrect about the 2-pc portion of my reply, and that is the 3-pc version, my apology.

 

[HutSiteDigger]

Good looking Nhbenz I could only barely make out the R in that photo, thought it was part of the decoration! guess you could call this a military button! Kewl findings..

 

[HutSiteDigger]

These buttons are in "Record of American uniforms and Historical Buttons" page 304 under "The Grand Army Of The Republic (1866-1956) It says This organization was constituted by Union veteran of the Civil War, April 6,1866 in Decatur,Illinois. The objects of the Society were the preservation of fraternal feeling, strengthening the loyal sentiment and giving aid to needy families of veterans. The first annual encampment of "comrades" convened the following November in Indianapolis, Indiana. By 1890 nearly half a million veterans had become members. The final encampment (83rd) was held August 1949 in Indianapolis. This Grand Army of the Republic ceased to exist August 2, 1956 with the death of the last surviving member, Albert Woolson drummer boy of Company C, First Minnestoa Heavy Artillery. He was 110 years of age.

There are many variants of GAR Buttons. The Major varieties and the buttons with patented features are included. The regulation device is a monogram of Initials GAR. There are several patterns with initials not in a monogram.

 

[relic lover]

thanks for the identification the guys. this would have to be an early 1 because the house appears on the 1867 map and is gone by the time is the 1876 map was made. I also found in Eagle artillery button last year at the same seller hole . there is a ton of iron in the ground I will be going back with my small cool

 

[nhbenz]

I'm not certain, but I think the construction of it would put it a bit closer to turn of the century... But as always I may be wrong. Someone with a button book covering post civil war buttons may be able to confirm one way or the other. What is the backmark? Waterbury Button Co.?

 

[relic lover]

read the backmark after some cleaning ...[TABLE="width: 640"]
[TR]
[TD]WATERBURY BUTTON CO.[/TD]
[TD]1849-1965[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Relic lover wrote:
> Read the backmark after some cleaning ... WATERBURY BUTTON CO. 1849-1965

That is the entire length of time the company was in business. It is useless for time-dating a button.

Your cuff-size GAR button's "Waterbury Button Co." backmark is written in non-serifed lettering (plain block letters), which almost always means late-1800s-through-20th-Century manufacture when seen in a button's backmark. (See the graphic, below, which shows the serifs in red.) The book "American Military Button Makers And Dealers; Their Backmarks & Dates" shows the non-serifed Waterbury Button Co. backmark in a photo (Figure 21), and says it dates from 1890 onward through the 20th-Century.