Buttons and makeup lid?

Jehm · Feb 2, 2015

I need help with identifying the military style buttons. They were found alongside 1850's large cents/flying eagle cents, and what would amount to a metric ton of spoons. I don't know what the item with the woman's bust on it is at all...but it looks like a top to a container. Finally, the flat button was found in the same location, but I suspect it is from much earlier. Any help identifying the flat button with the three bars on it would be much appreciated as well.

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lisfisher · Feb 3, 2015

Woman's bust - can you post a pic of the backside and the edge as well?
Button w/ 3 bars- stumped but still searching
The other button with the shield looks like a variation of the great seal.

Jehm · Feb 3, 2015

First pic of the bust is the backside, will post pic of edge later today.

TheCannonballGuy · Feb 3, 2015

Your brass 2-piece button which shows a shield on the chest of an eagle with high-raised wings is the 1854-through-1874 version of US Army "general service" button for Enlisted-men's ranks (sergeant, corporal, private). It is the button on the right in the photo below.

Your other 2-piece button is too dark in the photo to show enough detail to identify it.

I do not recognize the late-1700s-through-early-1800s brass 1-piece flatbutton showing three parallel bars on its front as being a military button. It is not shown in the book "Record Of American Uniform And Historical Buttons" (by Alphaeus H. Albert).