Artifact: Man's Coat Button
Materials: Fused silverplate
Dimensions: Diam: 1 3/16"
Date: 1785-1800
Origin: England, Sheffield or Birmingham
Collection: Image Courtesy of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
License: All rights reserved
Ledger Entry: Fine Silvered Coat Buttons
Department: Sewing
Customer: Richard Moxley
Ledger Page: 60
Imported From: While there were a few known button manufacturers in colonial America, buttons for the most part would have been imported from England or elsewhere in Europe.
Product Description
As buttons were used to fasten a wide array of clothing, they are ubiquitously found in colonial archaeological sites. Buttons came in a wide variety of styles and types. Many buttons, particularly for women's dresses, would have been covered in fabric. Metal or metal plated buttons were popular particularly for coats and could be highly ornate. Buttons could be fastened directly via holes through the button or through eyes attached to the back of the button.
Citation: Ivor Noël Hume. A Guide to Artifacts of Colonial America. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001), 88-93.;
Historical Price: 2 shillings, 3 pence per dozen; Modern USD: $25.2
Product Variations
The databases record sixty-six purchases of buttons. They came in an assortment of types including coat, shirt, sleeve, and breast. Their materials include silver, silvered, gold, gilt, and mettle. Other qualifiers included fine, best, black, and scarlet. They were usually sold by the dozen, but occasionally by the pair. Their prices ranged from two pence for a half dozen breast buttons to seven shillings for a dozen scarlet breast buttons.
