Pap. ^a 17?' EXCAVATIONS AT FORT LOOKOUT n — ^MILLER 71 



rim of the button, while two other shallow circles are between the 

 words and the wire shank. 



The poorer grade, in contrast to the better, is perfectly flat. The 

 edges were smoothed but the face was not as carefully polished. On 

 the reverse face there are no stamped words, but there are two rather 

 shallow concentric circles immediately around the wire loop shank. 



The spheroid type of this diameter was made in two pieces, a sphe- 

 roid and a base plate. The spheroid's greatest diameter is 18 mm. 

 while its height is 13 mm. At the base there was an opening 11 mm. in 

 diameter which was closed by the base plate, the latter slightly beyond 

 the exterior limits of the spheroid. The base plate measures 13 mm. 

 in diameter and is slightly saucer shaped. A wire loop for attach- 

 ment was brazed in the central concavity. One complete specimen 

 and another lacking its base plate were found (fig. 11, 2») . Buttons of 

 this type were either highly polished so that the brass shone or were 

 covered with cloth which matched or were in contrast to the garment 

 on which they were placed. 



Tlie 24-mm. button is a flat disk 2 mm. in thickness which resembles 

 the smaller "Warranted" type but instead the words "rich gold 

 colour" (fig. 11, c) appear on the reverse in conjunction with 

 crossed branches of laurel. Two concentric circles surround the 

 brazed-wire loop shank. The top surface was carefully smoothed and 

 probably at one time had a gilt surfacing or wash because slight traces 

 of such a treatment can be seen under a hand lens. In that connection 

 it is said that: 



Most of the early brass buttons were gold plated. The process of dipping 

 brass buttons in a solution of gold and mercury, a discovery of about 1700, made 

 this much easier, and other improvements were also made until it was said that 

 in 1818 the Birmingham manufacturers had succeeded in gilding a gross of but- 

 tons with three pennies worth of gold "and" the account adds, "experiments of 

 gilding buttons without any gold have been tried." 



The popularity of the gilt button lasted from 1760 to 1840 when electrogilding, 

 discovered in 1840, so cheapened the quality that all demand for them ceased. 

 Electrogilding was not so durable as the older methods of plating and tarnished 

 more easily, and there is no wonder these buttons lost their appeal — they were 

 an altogether inferior product [Ford, 1943.] 



A small button with a top of brass and a base plate of iron measures 

 13 mm. in diameter and 2 nim. in thickness. The top is embossed with 

 a series of small knobs surrounded by a number of smaller nodes. 

 These combinations appear adjacent to the outer rim of the button 

 while the central portion is formed by a slight ridge surrounding a 

 central saucer-shaped depression. The repousse design was stamped 

 onto a thin brass plate which in turn was crimped over and around a 

 circular iron base plate which was perforated. A false loop of brass 

 wire was inserted in the perforation. This button is illustrated in 

 figure 11, d. 



