Page 25 - September1951

September,1951 NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN 295

AN ENGITfSH SAIIIPLE CASE FROM 1786 (Text continued from p. 290)
Mr. F. J. Patrick, City Librarian of Birmingham, England, has been
kind enough to help us with information about Joseph Green. According
to Mr. Patrick, "The Birmingham directories from 1767-70 show a Joseph
Green,'Wine Merchant, 26, New Street; in 1774, there is a John Green,
button maker at 22, New Street. By 1781, the entries have changed to
Thomas Green, button maker and Joseph Green, merchant, both at 25, New
Street. The button making business, which in 1?85 became Green and Vale,
is not shown after 1?88, but Joseph Green, merchant, continues to 1Tg?.
It can only be assuned that the button makers and merchant are members
of the same family, and that Joseph dealt with the distribution only. Joseph
probably left Birmingham some time after 1?9?; he died at Dalbury, in
Derbyshire, on January 28th, 1810."
This case then, while it is, a merchant's sample book is also probably
the product turned out by a single button-maker and his workers. The
number of repetitions of a single pattern with different borders and espe-
cially the frequent use of the octagonal shape would tend to bear out that
conclusion.
All the buttons are flat, one-piece ryrought metal, finished in gilt or
parcel gilt. Some of the parcel gilt combines silver finish with giit anrt
some uses gunmetal finish. None of the designs are molded or die-struck;
all are accomplished by engraving, engine turning, chasing or a conbination
of these methods. It is interestin8 to note that practicauy all of the patterns
are conventional. The only exceptions, in fact, are flve floral patterns and
one realistically portrayed horse. The rest are geometrical, ranging from
simple cross-bars to intricate stars-within-stars.
The decade of 1780 was a difficult one for the English button trade.
There were troubles at home as competition flooded the market with buttons
of such inferior quality that leading manufacturers sought protection by
petitioning Parliament for falr trade regulations. There were lroubles from
abroad as American trade was cut off and as the x'rench taste for Iuxury
and novelty put good gilt buttons into an eclipse. But in spite of all dis-
c-ouragements Birmingham remained a button capital and continued to pro-
duce in the best traditions of honest workmanship, sound material and con-
servative design. .
This sample book of Joseph Green's is one of the extant proofs of
how they did it.
The sample case is owned by the George Ertells, of New Jersey, Mr.
Ertell having purchased it recently in tr'rance. The case will be exhibited
at the National Show in Chicago.
JANE F. ADAMS and LILLIAN S. ALBERT

rlN ^4IRCHEOLOGICAL FIND
- Major J' Duncan campbeu one of our N. B. s. members is an instructor at
Il1l:':P^r.-q.,Acad-emv^,_.Penna. IIe is also an enttrusiaJtid^ioiT"Jti,"'di niiliiaiv
lnslgnia, with emphasis on belt_plates and hat ornaments. Durine sctroot vacl'_
tiorlg- Illajor_ 9ampbell mav be found at var.ious.nevoiuiionarv rir-aiiimp sries
or lwaf of 1812 encampments digging carefully into the fuii-ator rreG dtso an
arcneotoglst.
-- --This past summer he has- been working at the Ft. Atkinson sites in Nebraska,
Valley Forge, and on an archeotogical site project atons ihe-Suiqlieiiirina River
in -Pennsvlvania. It is from the tatter ptac-e tnat we h*ave ; ie;i-b-uta;n fintt to
enlarge upon and illustrate in our Novemher issue. uajoi Cimpueii-bctuirii
unearthed here an 18th century political button-The wiliiam Fit'i nutton with
the legend,'NO STAMP-ACT 1?66,'and the word,,pITT;;! The s6;t witi fi
in your hands in November.
L. S. A.