Need help on Button ID "Columbia Libertad"

[DocBeav]

Found this last week in Va on a family property with a long history and associated with the Nate Turner Slave rebellion. I have found a few good 1800's finds from there over the last few years.

While out this week I found a flat button with the words "COLUMBIA" the top, "LIBERTAD" at the bottom and in the center are 3 stars on top, a sunburst/rise on the right and some kind of thing that looks like a Nike swoosh bottom left. Columbia in Latin is "dove" and Libertad is "liberty" so peace and liberty? Seems like some kind of military or militia button but can't find any similar examples. Don't think it's associated with the actual country of Columbia, their motto is "Libertad y Orden" Liberty/Freedom and Order. Any thoughts on this one?

 

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[The Rebel]

That's really cool, never seen that one before.

 

[Red-Coat]

Cool button. I've never seen one like it and don't know what it signifies, but I have some comments and observations:

“Columbia” is not Latin for “dove”. That would be “columba” (plural “columbae”). It would be odd for an inscription like this to be in two different languages, and the Latin for “liberty” would be “libertas” not “libertad” which is definitely Spanish. Equally, the Spanish for “dove” would be “paloma”.

The top word does seem to be “columbia” (with a ‘u’) not “colombia” (with an ‘o’) and the South American country has never used that spelling. It became the United States of Colombia in 1863, and it changed its name to the Republic of Colombia in 1886 (having previously been called New Granada, and the Grenadine Confederation.)

Columbia (with a ‘u’) must have some other connection. It was, for example, the historical name generally applied to the Americas and the New World (deriving from Christopher Columbus.) From the 1730s, it was used as the toponym for the thirteen colonies that would form the United States, and then became the personification of the United States before being displaced by lady Liberty.

Terms such as "orange" to describe buttons that weren't actually gilded (they used coatings with little or no gold, including lacquers) first began to appear after 1796. The spelling for “colour” indicates this to be from a British maker. The backmarks are raised, not indented, and indentation first appeared around 1810. Raised backmarks were progressively phased out after this and are rarely seen after about 1840. So, that points to the button likely having been made in the early 1800s, which also doesn't fit with the history of Colombia as a country.

 

[DocBeav]

That is great info Red Coat! Thanks! Think it could have been a button from a British/Loyalist Militia before or during the American Rev. War?

 

[Red-Coat]

That is great info Red Coat! Thanks! Think it could have been a button from a British/Loyalist Militia before or during the American Rev. War?

You're welcome, but it doesn't solve the mystery.

I would be very doubtful it has any connection to British loyalists. There needs to be a logical explanation for why ‘libertad’ is in Spanish and how it connects to ‘Columbia’. The latter has no meaning in Spanish, beyond being the historical name for the Americas (in the sense of the ‘land of Columbus’ and the goddess of that name as a personification for the America. I wouldn’t pay too much attention to the fact the button appears to be British-made. Britain was a major exporter of buttons from the late 1700s through to the 1800s. There were plenty of manufacturers fulfilling orders from all over the place… sometimes in quite small custom consignments to particular designs.

I also wonder what the boat-like shape is below the sun and stars. Is it just an expanse of landscape with hills/mountains at the left or something else entirely? Some careful cleaning might help.

Regarding the sun and the stars, I would assume they have some particular significance in a nationalistic or similar context, but I have no idea what.

Speculating a little, the 'Sun of May' (Spanish: Sol de Mayo) is a national symbol of Argentina and Uruguay, appearing on both of their flags. It’s derived from its use as an emblem during the May Revolution of 1810 which marked the beginning of independence from the Spanish Empire for the countries of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (now broadly the territories of Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay and Uruguay). It was originally depicted as having 32 rays alternating between straight and wavy with a face in the centre (Uruguay uses it with 16 rays).

Inspired by the Latin American wars of independence, the former Spanish colony of the Philippines also adopted the Sol de Mayo as a revolutionary banner, later becoming a faceless sun in the current national flag where it’s surrounded by three stars which represent the three main island groups. However, that wasn’t until the Revolution of 1896, which is too late for the button. Also, the stars are depicted at the corners of a triangle with the sun at the centre, so I don’t think it relates to the Philippines.

I suspect it somehow relates to a Spanish-speaking part of the Americas at a time of desire for, or celebration of, independence in the early 1800s. Maybe even Mexico.