✅ SOLVED Firmin & Sons Ld. London Brass Dragon Wyvern Griffin Livery Button Set

[SDIceMan]

Good evening all. I picked up this set of ten Firmin & Sons brass military uniform or livery buttons (four 1" buttons and six 1/2" buttons) at a garage sale a few months back and after two fruitless seven-day auction listings on Ebay, they were left to gather dust in my storage room. The box I have them sitting in is not original. Seeing as how I've had success on this forum before, I was hoping that someone knowledgable about buttons could offer some insight as to the age or significance or even potential value of these buttons before I make my next attempt to sell them on Ebay. Thank you.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Your buttons are definitely Livery buttons, not military. The emblem on them includes a torse, which is a spiral-twisted wreath or cloth laying horizontally, VIEWED EDGEWISE, very frequently seen in Livery but not on military buttons. In Livery symbology, the torse always shows six spirals -- as we see on your button.
torse - Wiktionary

The main emblem on your buttons is a dog, not a wyvern or a griffin. Note that the dog is wearing a collar, AND the animal's neck has (long) hair, which is not seen on the neck of a wyvern or griffin. Specifically, that breed of dog is a Lurcher, a breed which originated in Ireland and parts of Great Britain.

I did some research for you, and found an extremely close match at the best Livery-buttons website I know of, in the "Dogs - Greyhound or Lurcher" section.
https://sites.google.com/site/liverybuttonsidentified/home/dogs---greyhound-or-lurcher
Scroll down to the Rowley Family button.

Time-dating:
Your backmark (maker/dealer's-mark) on your buttons says "Firmin & Sons Ld." The "Ld" is an abbreviation of Limited. That company became a Limited Liability company in 1875... therefore, your buttons cannot be from any earlier than that year. Also, the backmark is written in late-1800s-to-present "plain block" lettering. I've never seen your buttons's (very unusual) crossbar-shank on any pre-20th-Century buttons, so I believe yours are from sometime in the 20th Century.

 

[SDIceMan]

Thank you so much for your educational reply to my original post. Folks such as yourself are an asset to this forum and are much appreciated.