Square Button ???? drapery weight !!!

[Pull Tab King]

Hi all

This is my first POST here on TreasureNet. I have been waiting to find something that stumped me, well here it is.
This was found on a river side beach, around old home foundations that date between 1910 - 1983.
It is also in that same area of the Battle of San Jacinto, fought on April 21, 1836, in present-day Harris County, Texas, was the decisive battle of the Texas Revolution. it is 1 inch by 1 inch a little heavy, as seen in the pictures when one corner was cleaned it shows a silver color with the marking "JJ", and on the back side the letter "E", it looks like some buttons i have seen, but I can not find anything that comes close.
Thank you all for your help.

Update: Thank you all so very much, It did not take you all very long to solve this one. I will try and date it, now that I know what it is.

 

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[TheCannonballGuy]

Re: Square Button ?

The object appears to be a clothing-hem weight ...specifically, a coat-tail weight or ladies' skirt-hem weight, made of lead, manufactured from the early-1800s all the way into the early 20th-century. The weight was most often used in skirt/dress-hems, to prevent the wind from blowing a woman's skirt upward, embarrassing her by exposing her undergarments. But at that time in History, men wore coats with extra-long tails, which the men didn't want to have flapping around in the wind, entangling their legs.

Number-markings on it indicates it is late-1800s-to-20th-century. (Very-early ones are blank.)

Most antique clothing-weights are circular. Your square one is uncommon. It is recognized by the combination of four characteristics... being thin, flat, and made of lead, and having the hole in the center with a crossbar (for sewing it onto the clothing).

 

[maxpower]

Re: Square Button ?

yup drapery weight, i used to cut them out of the drapes in my JR high school, but don't tell no one!

 

[Lafitte Deux]

Re: Square Button ?

I concur. Drapery weight.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: Square Button ?

Number-markings on it indicates it is late-1800s-to-20th-century. (Very-early ones are blank.)

I agree. I noticed that these are often sold on CW sites as CW era. But I think the little round marks in IMG 188 also mean its modern (not CW).. Would it be safe to date these by these round factory mold marks? Does anyone know when these round injection mold marks first appeared? I have always called them injection mold marks but I may be wrong.

The injection molding machine was patented in 1872. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Injection_molding I notice these round marks appear on buttons as well as other lead, pewter and plastic items..

I wrote a piece about my theory on this a few years back here but nobody was able to verify.

http://www.textol.com/d_items.asp?cat=04

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Re: Square Button ?

Maxpower and Lafitte Deux, thank you for posting that information. I did not know about drapery-weights. I had never seen one. Like the clothing-weights, they keep a long piece of cloth hanging straight down ...and they have the same thin, flat, lead body, and a single round hole with crossbar for sewing them onto the cloth. So I figured that Pull Tab King's mystery object was a clothing-weight. It makes sense that square corners could wear a hole in the cloth fabric covering the weight during repeated washing, so clothing-weights are circular. Drapery only rarely gets put in the laundry, so the sqaure corners on drapery-weights don't matter. Now, thanks to you guys, I know how to tell the difference between a clothing (coat-tail or skirt-hem) weight and a drapery-weight.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: Square Button ?

Maxpower and Lafitte Deux, thank you for posting that information. I did not know about drapery-weights. I had never seen one. Like the clothing-weights, they keep a long piece of cloth hanging straight down ...and they have the same thin, flat, lead body, and a single round hole with crossbar for sewing them onto the cloth. So I figured that Pull Tab King's mystery object was a clothing-weight. It makes sense that square corners could wear a hole in the cloth fabric covering the weight during repeated washing, so clothing-weights are circular. Drapery only rarely gets put in the laundry, so the sqaure corners on drapery-weights don't matter. Now, thanks to you guys, I know how to tell the difference between a clothing (coat-tail or skirt-hem) weight and a drapery-weight.

Good to know but keep in mind my link shows every size used for drapery, including round, so it wont work the other way around but like you said the modern ones have markings. http://www.textol.com/d_items.asp?cat=04 .

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Re: Square Button ?

Ack! I didn't scroll down the page far enough at the website you linked. Thank you for the heads-up, BCH.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Re: Square Button ?

Its amazing that they are still made the same after all these years. I cant imagine wanting to carry around extra lead weight in a coat jacket but I know its true.. They even had coat weights during the Revolutionary War. I remember seeing them posted but I think they were a little different.

It would be interesting to see if they were still made the same way. I found this pic online. http://www.garrett.com/hobbysite/searcher_pdf/spring01.pdf