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Need A Bit Of Help From The Button ID Masters


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Was out in a regular field spot with the F75 again...this week, got a couple interesting buttons.  I am curious if anyone can identify the button I enlarged.  I do not have a good button book yet.  I blew up the center silver plated eagle button.  It is 19mm give or take, and says Armitage PHIL on it so should be pre-civil war.  I do not see any letter in the center of the shield, and really don't want to damage it to clean it up at the moment.  Sorry for the fuzzy pics...phone camera not impressing me so far.

Also, if anyone has an inkling as to the top right piece...

 

Thanks.

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Man, there are lots of variants of that button! George Armitage was an early producer of buttons in the 1820's in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

http://www.relicman.com/buttons/Button9901-Backmark-Armitage000.html

Free pdf book here

George Armitage of Race St., Philadelphia was a plate worker from Sheffield, England who appeared in Philadelphia in 1795. He produced buttons from 1799-1826. Armitage died in 1826. Source: American Military Button Makers and Dealers: Their Backmarks & Dates

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It's hard to tell from the photo being a little blurry, but it may be worth consulting an expert as to value before doing any cleaning. I looked at a lot of pages of similar buttons and while quite a few are close none seemed to be an exact match. That would seem to indicate it is rare and perhaps of such value that a poor cleaning job would be a bad idea. You probably know more about that than I do though.

Yours looks like a single piece. This page has a similar single piece Armitage button in very poor condition made of pewter, asking $75

http://www.americancivilwarrelics.com/Z1642.htm

Yours is in FAR better condition.

Z1642A.JPG

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That decorative piece in the upper right of your first photo reminds me of a keyhole protector (see image below) from a dresser or chest-of-drawers.  It's missing the keyhole so might have been from a drawer that didn't have a keyhole, but the designer wanted to keep consistency from drawer to drawer and at least one drawer was lockable.  Note the hole for a small nail (brad).

And nice button!

 

keyhole_protector.jpg

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thanks guys for the words and help.  It does amaze me sometimes...the house these buttons were in burned down probably at least 140 years ago due to it disappearing from an 1875 or so map, but being present in an 1840s map.  That those things are still even identifiable is incredible, in an actively farmed field for that long.  I have a small box of multiple un-identified items from that field that are so intriguing...

thx again. I enjoy this site.

 

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