Page 21 - July2011

July 2011 THE NATIONAL 13u'T'Ton BULLETIN 127

Prince Albert was a patron of Andrew Smith's manufactory in Ayrshire and this
set may have been unique. They are hunting, shooting and fishing scenes.
In the later 1840s the relative simplicity of the earlier die stamped buttons
was beginning to give way to increasingly fancy borders, more elaborate vignettes
and detailed backgrounds. This development was paralleled stylistically in other
types of men's coat buttons, including the popular gilts, where flat, slope-sided
buttons decorated with allover low relief designs (the so-called 'watchcase gilts')
represented the ultimate development of the style, although the plainer styles
continued to be made alongside the fancy ones.
In their search for novelty, manufacturers began to experiment with two- and
three-piece construction, multiple borders, combined gilt and silver plating and in-
serts of bone, vegetable ivory, painted iron, wood, glass, paper or pearl, particularly