Author Topic: Identify button please  (Read 5872 times)

Offline lustremounter

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Identify button please
« on: Monday 19 October 09 19:06 BST (UK) »
Can somebody identify this 0.95 inch diameter brass button?
The reverse has  GREEN & Co.  SAVILLE ROW.
STANDEN,  RANDOLPH

Offline Roger in Sussex

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Re: Identify button please
« Reply #1 on: Monday 19 October 09 22:32 BST (UK) »
The coronet is like that of an English baron, and the figure could be his crest, so might it possibly be a livery button worn by servants of a baronial family?

Roger

Offline Kalishoek

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Re: Identify button please
« Reply #2 on: Tuesday 20 October 09 08:23 BST (UK) »
The whip and the figure makes me believe the person wearing this had something to do with the slave-trade. Maybe a slave master
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Offline mike175

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Re: Identify button please
« Reply #3 on: Tuesday 20 October 09 10:12 BST (UK) »
Not sure if it's any help, but the figure appears to be wearing armour and holding a small cross in his left hand, suggesting a mediaeval knight, perhaps a crusader, which might support the baronial crest theory.
Baskervill - Devon, Foss - Hants, Gentry - Essex, Metherell - Devon, Partridge - Essex/London, Press - Norfolk/London, Stone - Surrey/Sussex, Stuttle - Essex/London, Wheate - Middlesex/Essex/Coventry/Oxfordshire/Staffs, Gibson - Essex, Wyatt - Essex/Kent


Offline lustremounter

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Re: Identify button please
« Reply #4 on: Wednesday 21 October 09 16:56 BST (UK) »
The baron's coronet is a good idea Roger. But the 4 visible balls are actually small ones interspersed between something higher up which may be fleurs de lys, definitely not strawberry leaves, so does not agree with English peerage coronets.
 The more I look at it the more there is to see and I had not realised how many clues there are.
Could that be a cat-of nine-tails in the right hand and a cross or dagger in the left hand.
Could the bar at the bottom be a ship's bulwark or an altar rail?
Bob.
STANDEN,  RANDOLPH

Offline Roger in Sussex

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Re: Identify button please
« Reply #5 on: Wednesday 21 October 09 20:43 BST (UK) »
Bob,

I think a cat-of-nine-tails had literally nine strands to it, but not sure about that. Certainly looks like an instrument for flogging though , with knots in the strands.

It doesn't seem to me to be a good way of holding a dagger, surely it would cut one's hands? Could it be a pair of scissors, or is that just a trick of the light on your image?

Re the bar at the bottom, it is quite usual to have a wreath at the bottom of a crest, usually in the same colours as the shield. That was one thing that made me think it might be a crest.

It's a fascinating item, I hope you discover what it symbolises.

Cheers

Roger

Offline mike175

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Re: Identify button please
« Reply #6 on: Wednesday 21 October 09 23:06 BST (UK) »
I still think it is a cross in his left hand. I wonder if the whip has some religious significance?

Baskervill - Devon, Foss - Hants, Gentry - Essex, Metherell - Devon, Partridge - Essex/London, Press - Norfolk/London, Stone - Surrey/Sussex, Stuttle - Essex/London, Wheate - Middlesex/Essex/Coventry/Oxfordshire/Staffs, Gibson - Essex, Wyatt - Essex/Kent

Offline PrueM

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Re: Identify button please
« Reply #7 on: Wednesday 21 October 09 23:38 BST (UK) »
I tried to clean it up a little bit in photoshop, but it's a very small image so not sure if it's helped at all.  For what it's worth, I think the right hand is holding some kind of whip similar to a cat o' nine tails, and the left hand is holding the hilt of a short sword, which goes through a belt and sticks out below.  The person appears to be wearing an armour or mail skirt.

Prue

Offline Rabbit B

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Re: Identify button please
« Reply #8 on: Wednesday 21 October 09 23:55 BST (UK) »
Hi Folks,

That is an interesting button,  have you considered sending a copy of the picture to the British Museum?

Rabbit B  :)

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