Look what we dug up

[Maggie.]

Have you a metal detector?     So fascinating!  I hope the company writes you back.

We've gone over the whole area with a metal detector - it responds to iron deposits.  It's months since we emailed the company but we shall try again.

[Maggie.]

Scroll down to the 3rd photo

http://whistlemuseum.com/2008/11/24/wdowler--sons-escargot-button-whistle-c1860--70s-beside-a-dowler-american-civil-war-button.aspx

That's interesting Jool.  OH and I in our researches have thought it may be part of a whistle.

[Maggie.]

Interesting looking at my photos, which I took this morning with the sun shining across it, as they show much more detail than we can see with the naked eye.  There appears to be a trefoil on the 'crown' that the unicorn is emerging from.

[Jool]

Looks like you will need to dig up the rest of your garden in search of the whistle Maggie 

[Greensleeves]

Did they actually use the manufactured buttons as part of the whistles, Maggie?  It seems as though they must have done since the back bears the name of the company.  If it was designed solely for use on the whistle, I assume there would be no point having the back stamped with the maker's name as it would never have been seen.  Or is my reasoning flawed here?

[Janette]

It seems the buttons on the whistles have the name of the constabulary they were made for rather than the unicorn

[Jool]

Maggie, maybe you could contact the Whistle Museum for advice

[groom]

Look at this one though, Janette. It looks the same as the unicorn on Maggie's find.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0wv4/

Dowler was a manufacturer of buttons, so perhaps they were made in the same factory and put to different uses.

[Maggie.]

Did they actually use the manufactured buttons as part of the whistles, Maggie?  It seems as though they must have done since the back bears the name of the company.  If it was designed solely for use on the whistle, I assume there would be no point having the back stamped with the maker's name as it would never have been seen.  Or is my reasoning flawed here?

OH and I are just discussing this very observation GS (whist eating!!).  You raise a valid point.