real or fake

[plymouthian12]

My son bought a bag of theses some are coat and some are cuff buttons most are marked Scovill Warerbury any idea on age or price he paid something like a dollar a piece thanks
kent

 

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[duggap]

I can't find my backmark book, but if memory serves me your backmark would be about 1860.

 

[taz42o]

Button Back Marks

Bad Link, Wrong Dates.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Unfortunately, that button-backmarks website contains many errors in its dates for backmarks.

I appreciate the website owner's efforts... but I wish he could at least manage to stop repeatedly spelling the Scovill company's location incorrectly -- it isn't "Waturbury." The mis-spelling and many dating errors indicate "lack of serious scholarship."

So, I recommend a far more reliable info source... the book "American Military Buttonmakers And Dealers; Their Backmarks & Dates" by William F. McGuinn and Bruce S. Bazelon. Its authors are indeed button-history scholars, who did massive research in historical business documents and archives. Their book even includes photos of the major button-companies' backmarks. That is particularly important for the Scovill backmarks.

According to that book, your US Navy button with the "large letters" Scovill Mfg. Co. / Waterbury (with no stars, etc) backmark was manufactured only between 1880 and 1920.

Later this afternoon, when my wife is finished using our scanner, I'll make a scan of the book's photo-page of Scovill Mfg. Co. backmark variations, so you can see what is meant by "large letters."

 

[taz42o]

Thanks for the info Cannonballguy I will remove that site from my links. Now that I look around I see many sites with those same wrong dates.

 

[plymouthian12]

Thank you so much for the info he 6 of them and he has cuff buttons that look the same but say superior quality do you think they were worth the $8 he paid?

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

It is almost impossible to accurately date his US Navy cuff-size buttons with a "Superior Quality" backmark, because that backmark has been in continuous use from the early 1800s right up to today. The large US Navy buttons with the 1880-to-1920 Scovill backmark are worth at least a few bucks EACH as Spanish-American War (1898) era or World War One (1917) era US Navy buttons. So, the $8 your son paid for the whole batch will turn him a profit eventually.

Take a look at the historical Scovill backmarks photo I'm about to post, so you can confirm that your buttons' backmark is indeed the 1880-to-1920 version. Please note, the presence or absence of "stars", a circle of dots, and even the size of the lettering are VERY important clues in accurately dating a button's backmark.

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Taz42o, here's the scan from McGuinn-&-Bazelon's book on backmarks I promised to post. That book is a far more reliable info-source for backmark-dating than any website. The book only costs about $25 ...and it will pay for itself multiple times for anybody who is thinking about buying or selling (or metal-detecting for) Historical buttons.

By the way, this scan is made and posted with the permission of my longtime friend Wliiam F. McGuinn, one of the book's authors, who said I could post an occasional scan from the book if I only do it for Educational posts.

Although the Scovill button-making company was founded in 1811, this scan shows only the various Scovill backmarks from 1860 to 1920. (Earlier backmarks are shown on the prior page in the book.) IMPORTANT NOTE: as I said in my reply to Plymouthian12 ...the presence or absence of "stars" (or other "punctuation-symbols" in the backmark), a circular solid line around the loop, a circle of dashes, a circle of dots, and even the size of the lettering are VERY important clues in accurately dating a button's backmark. At first glance, some of these backmarks seem identical -- but look for the small differences. They can matter a lot.

(By the way, for anybody here who doesn't already know... left-click on the posted photo to see a larger version of it.)