button

Click a letter for the index

Or search the encyclopaedia:

 

 

Go

 

Fastener for clothing, originating with Bronze Age fasteners. In medieval Europe buttons were replaced by pins but were reintroduced in the 13th century as a decorative trim and in the 16th century as a functional fastener.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, gold- and silver-plated handmade buttons were popular with the nobility. Enamel buttons were developed in the 18th century. By the early 19th century, machine-made fabric buttons and buttons made of glass and ceramics existed, but they were not strongly featured on garments. By the middle of the 19th century, shell, mother-of-pearl, moulded horn, stamped steel, and brass buttons were popular. In the 1880s there was a revival of the use of enamel buttons. The 1920s art deco movement increased the popularity of buttons, and in the 1930s they were produced in wood, cork, Perspex, and various plastics. By the 1940s a well-dressed man wore approximately 70 buttons, only a few of them functional. After World War II buttons became more functional and less decorative.

The white saltire comes from the flag of Scotland. The St Patrick's Cross was, in fact, taken from the arms of the powerful Geraldine family. The red cross of St George is taken from the flag of England. Effective date: 1 January 1801. >>