Old? metal button, can anybody ID?

[uni]

 

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[trapperart]

No help here but congrats

 

[vpnavy]

..: Moved from Today's Finds! over to Our Discoveries > What Is It? for more exposure :..​

 

[diggummup]

Old livery button, good luck... https://sites.google.com/site/liverybuttonsidentified/

 

[nhbenz]

The type of backmark with a raised mark in a depressed channel (RMDC) is often an indication that it was made in the 1850's. Nice hunting button!

 

[uni]

The type of backmark with a raised mark in a depressed channel (RMDC) is often an indication that it was made in the 1850's. Nice hunting button!

Back of button reads "SUPERIOR QUALITY EXTRA RICH"

Now I'm looking closely at other button I've recovered.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

The button is a "Sportsman" button, showing a rabbit upside down with its leg caught in a tree-mounted snare, and a dead game-bird, perhaps a Passenger Pigeon. As Nhbenz indicated, the backmark on your brass 2-piece button being witten in raised lettering inside a depressed channel indicates manufacture from sometime in the 1830s through 1850s. Because the term "Extra Rich" is included in the backmark, I lean toward it being from the 1830s to early 1840s.

 

[uni]

WoW, thanks very much! This is the oldest item I've ever recovered. It was recovered at a house built in 1873 in NW Ohio. Was "Superior Quality" the manufacturer and in Tennessee? Looks it might have been on a hunting jacket, hunt club maybe?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Uni asked:
Was "Superior Quality" the manufacturer and in Tennessee?

The short answer to both of your questions is No and No. It seems that sometime in the late 1700s the British Jewelers Guild (or something like that) came up with a set of quality ratings for metal buttons. The ratings refer to the relative quality of workmanship in the button's construction, die-work, AND the quality of the gold gilting or silver plating on the buttons. Unfortunately, the Guild was unable to "enforce" the ratings, resulting in a multitude of escalating claims about the button's quality, so the Quality ratings soon became nearly meaningless. For example, what does "Extra Superfine" really mean? (It merely means that one button manufacturer was trying to top the Quality claims of another manufacturer.) Some of the many variations of Quality ratings that I've personally seen on brass buttons from the 1790s through the mid-1800s are:
Standard Quality
Extra Quality
Superior Quality
Warranted Superior Quality
Fine Quality
Superfine Quality
Extra Superfine Quality
Rich Quality
Extra Rich Quality

As I said above, the button Quality ratings originated in Britain, and seem to have continued in use there longer than anywhere else. They were soon copied by Amercan button makers, and some French makers. The term "Extra Rich" in your Sportsman's button's backmark is very frequently seen in British-made button backmarks, which makes me lean toward your button being made in Britain. However, there's at least a small chance it could be American-made, due to the existence of an American backmark from 1811-1827 saying "L.H. & Scovill Extra Rich". But according to the best book on button backmarks, Scovill does not seem to have used the term "Extra Rich" on 2-piece brass buttons.

In closing, I should mention, "Superior Quality" was still being used in button backmarks into the late 20th Century, and is probably still in use today. For example, many 20th Century US Army "Great Seal" buttons have a Superior Quality backmark.

 

[uni]

Never realized there is so much to buttons, I'll have to get a good book on buttons and read up. You've gotten me intrigued.

 

[Old Pueblo]

WoW, thanks very much! This is the oldest item I've ever recovered. It was recovered at a house built in 1873 in NW Ohio. Was "Superior Quality" the manufacturer and in Tennessee? Looks it might have been on a hunting jacket, hunt club maybe?

Nice work. It probably belonged to the original owners of the house.

 

[uni]

Nice work. It probably belonged to the original owners of the house.

The house was built in 1873. However, the father of the son who had the house built bought the property in 1832. I have no yet found his home, but have a good idea where is might have been. When the crop comes off the field I'll get a look for.

 

[steelheadwill]

Never realized there is so much to buttons, I'll have to get a good book on buttons and read up. You've gotten me intrigued.

Congrats Uni, sportings are some of my favorites. Be careful, it's easy to become entangled in button mania after finding your first ' goodie',

 

[CRUSADER]

Agreed, a 19th C Hunts Button. I've not seen this combo of rabbit & bird before, pretty cool.

 

[sutphin]

THE RABBIT AND THE HARE NEET.