🔎 UNIDENTIFIED Help with a 2 piece button please….

Fishin-4-a-Livin

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Dec 4, 2021
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I posted this in the ”Button“ section, without much luck.

I took some better pictures. I’m hoping someone could give me a clue as to the approximate time period this may have come from. I have searched every button image I could find on the internet.

From my research, it has a ”self shank” on the back. But my research has been known to be faulty before, lol. So not really sure what type it is.

I guess my biggest question is, judging by the pictures, could this be very early 1800s?

The design on top is slightly misshapen.


C6930710-5594-467A-8817-C38C8AB93850.jpeg
0C326DD7-7B30-4AAE-9246-172C641163E1.jpeg
FD5239D6-5F22-4C6A-8151-0AA70C795DEA.jpeg
C6EB5199-9E41-4F7D-B0A0-6CF62DB99A37.jpeg




Thanks for the help!!
 

Solution
Here's my analysis of your brass 2-piece button's age, based on it having a "self-shank" back.

The version of self-shank back seen in your photo is what button-collectors call a "simple pierced dome." That version was first invented and patented about 1910, plus or minus a few years. Sorry, I cannot now remember the exact date.

It is called a "simple" pierced dome because the openings for thread to pass through it were made by (simply) doing nothing but pushing a nail's point into it on opposite sides of the dome. That method caused the holes in the thin sheetmetal back to have sharp edges -- which would pretty soon cut through the thread. So, some years later an improvement was made, in which the edges of the pierced hole were...
Here's my analysis of your brass 2-piece button's age, based on it having a "self-shank" back.

The version of self-shank back seen in your photo is what button-collectors call a "simple pierced dome." That version was first invented and patented about 1910, plus or minus a few years. Sorry, I cannot now remember the exact date.

It is called a "simple" pierced dome because the openings for thread to pass through it were made by (simply) doing nothing but pushing a nail's point into it on opposite sides of the dome. That method caused the holes in the thin sheetmetal back to have sharp edges -- which would pretty soon cut through the thread. So, some years later an improvement was made, in which the edges of the pierced hole were smoothly folded/crimped back onto themselves, creating a smooth-edged hole. A third evolution of self-shank back appeared around the 1950s, in which the shank has the form of a machine-pressed raised rectangle with a folded-edges tunnel passing through it. See the photos below.
 

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Last edited:
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Here's my analysis of your brass 2-piece button's age, based on it having a "self-shank" back.

The version of self-shank back seen in your photo is what button-collectors call a "simple pierced dome." That version was first invented and patented about 1910, plus or minus a few years. Sorry, I cannot now remember the exact date.

It is called a "simple" pierced dome because the openings for thread to pass through it were made by (simply) doing nothing but pushing a nail's point into it on opposite sides of the dome. That method caused the holes in the thin sheetmetal back to have sharp edges -- which would pretty soon cut through the thread. So, some years later an improvement was made, in which the edges of the pierced hole were smoothly folded/crimped back onto themselves, creating a smooth-edged hole. A third evolution of self-shank back appeared around the 1950s, in which the shank has the form of a machine-pressed raised rectangle with a folded-edges tunnel passing through it. See the photos below.

Thank you so much for the information!

Disappointing, but very informative.
 

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