Coat button
Label Text
In the 1790s, a taste for large, luminescent disks made of exotic materials such as shell or stone superseded the earlier fashion for modest-sized buttons of metal or fabric. Such buttons were employed on fashionable outerwear for women, including great coats and riding habits, as well as men's coats. This pair of conch shell buttons, each with a silver-plated boss and a gilt ten-pointed star at its center, was among a larger set owned by George or Martha Washington. The expensive fasteners were later given to friends and family as relics of the venerable couple.
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Datec. 1789-1797
Medium/TechniqueConch shell, gold, silver, copper alloy
DimensionsOverall: 3/8 in. x 1 1/4 in. x 1 1/4 in. (0.97 cm x 3.18 cm x 3.18 cm)
Credit LineAcquired through the generosity of R. Keith Kane, 1957
Object numberW-2080/A
DescriptionPink conch shell concave button with gilt metal ten-pointed star and silver-plated boss in center; smooth pink and white surface of the shell on obverse; dull white surface of the shell on reverse, except in areas where the dull white has been carved away to expose the pink surface; loop shank of copper alloy metal.Published ReferencesCarol Borchert Cadou, The George Washington Collection: Fine and Decorative Arts at Mount Vernon (New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2006), 227.
Martha Gandy Fales, "The Jewelry," The Magazine Antiques 135, no. 2 (February 1989): 515.
Martha Gandy Fales, Jewelry in America: 1600-1900 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, England: Antique Collectors' Club, 1995), 126.
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