Page 33 - January1948

NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN 31

discussed, namely, an ivory back, with a heavy copper shank through the
body. The buttons ln the last row show the same face technlque, but the
backs are copper instead of ivory,
rn the first four specimens, the palnted satin. medallion vr'as laid on a
heavy ivory disc and covered with glass. It is not possible to see whether
the two buttons in the last row have ivory as a filler lnside but they are also
glass covered.
with the aid of a magnifying grass you will be able to detect the dif-
ferences which occur in hand woik. These are particurarly evident in the
bot'der designs which va,ry in each quarter section. Some parts of the de-
sign are darker than others showing the artist had just nitea nis pen; in
others the color fades out as the pen becomes empty.
Flere again, we have work for the groups wishing to ittentify new but-
ton pictures. In all probability, these identities mai be uncovered in the
very earliest books on. Heraldry or the Mythology known to each country.
You will note that each border pattern is different, also. Let us hear trom
anyone who knows the identities presented here. These buttons were used
at the Forum discussion and are from the Kohn Collection.

CHINESE POTTERY BUTTON
Tl-ris Chinese pottery button was made in Fukien
Plovince dur.iug the Tsin dynasty in the Brd Century
(the same period during which the building of the
Gleat WaIl was begun)
The type of decoi'ation on this button is accred_
ited to the Ch'in pottefs who were often killed and
buried with their work, the art of making the pot-
tery was thus kept a seclet.
The style of decoration is known as the ,,hori-
zontal S" or squared S pattern and it was known to
have been used on hard white pottery as early as
1766 B. C. Occasionally we find conventionalized or
nrythological animals combined with it and in this instance we rrave a dragon
painted in chinese blue. The ouilining is done in black and green color is
also ernployed in the decoration. Tlle ware is glazed, a"o irre ;';;tr" is deep
concave in shape, with a heavy self shank highly glazed.
This button from the Kohn collection was used at the Fol'um and dis-
cussed by Judge Pendleton.

SOUTH AMERICAN PRE-HISTORIC BUTTONS

For years I collected Indian'elics, however. since I began to assist Mrs.
zand'er in collecting buttons some of the Indian relic dealeis losl a customer
and were informed that if they secured some interesting buttons i would be
glad to hear from them. A year ago, one of the collector dealers showed
some sherl artifacts which were classified as buttons by the archeologist who
excavated them in santa Marta, columbia, south Amer.ica in 1g16. These
so-called buttons made of shell have a concave boring in which aie rtrilled
two smaller holes, and are similar to the modern buitons excepf it at tt ey
are rectangular or square instead of round. I contacted one of thb
archeologists and asked if any fragnrents of clothing were found so as to
give positive proof that these so-called buttons we|e actually used as but-
tons instead of possibly as. ornarnents. The answer was that due to the
estimated age of the ruins being 1100 A. D., any gar.ments of fabric, skin,
or glass would have decomposed so that ilrere was no di|ect evidence of
their use, but after some discussion ilre alcheologists classified them as