backmarks

A brief look at Buttons {Backmarks, to be continued).

There can be few collectors now who don't appreciate the role of the back mark in both identifying & dating buttons, livery button collectors for example , usually, have to rely on the back to date designs that may have been in use by the same family for generations; uniform collectors, with a desire to collect to a particular period, use the backs to date patterns that again might have been used for a number of years. I do know of several collectors, myself among them, who collect back marks as assiduously as others might collect the obverse design. If you are studying the subject you quickly realize that multiple examples of, essentially, the same obverse still may not necessarily lead you to be able to attribute anonymous patterns or wording, I have had some success

Backmarks: (picture of man with pick) a brief article on subject (when I get time to finish it) & links to a photographic study of some common obverse designs.-the reason this isn't suspended is because someone else is working on the photos' at another location;, ): I should be working on it too but had a dozen other things to do; Shh, nobody tell him (-:

With the quality marks you still need to match the die used, which is no easy task as can be demonstrated by the photographic study, on the pages listed below , of some very common buttons:

Merchant Navy

Type 1

Type 2

Universal Pattern for Privates (under construction)

Universal Pattern for militia

Click the thumbnails to see a larger picture if you are using windows fax & picture viewer you can enlarge them further without much loss of clarity.

1. 2

both the above images are Crown Copyright reproduced by kind permission of the Comptroller General of the Patent Office

I would be very interested to hear from anyone who has positively identified any marks or would otherwise like to participate in this project; especially welcome are contributors from outside the UK.

* Identified in American Military ** found by P. Ingham in an advertisement. The mark may also have been used by one of the founding companies as was the pattern for the other marks, I am aware of, in use by Buttons Ltd.