18th Century Material Culture

Shirt Buckles & Buttons

Shirt
Buckles

Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle for Closing the Chest Opening of a Shirt
2nd Half 18th Century

Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle for Closing the Chest Opening of a Shirt
2nd Half 18th Century

Silver Shirt Buckle

c. 1750 - 1780
(Historic New England)

English Silver with Pastes Shirt Buckle

c. 1770 - 1800
(Historic New England)

Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle with Pastes (Glass Stones) for Closing the Chest Opening of a Shirt

American Silver & Garnet Shirt Buckle

1770
(Metropolitan Museum of Art)

"Shirt Buckle" excavated at Camp Security near York, Pennsylvania; a camp occupied by British
Prisoners of War during the American War for Independence. Possibly, but not necessarily, Scottish in
origin.

Heart Shaped Silver & Pastes Shirt Buckle Worn on a Recreated Linen Shirt
Note the Proper Fit of the Collar to the Neck and the Fit of the Neck Cloth

The Manner of Applying a Shirt Buckle

(Courtesy Ward Oles / At the Eastern Door)

Possible
Shirt Buckle

45 Buckles
John Wilkes & Liberty !
The Smaller Buckle May have been used to Close a Shirt, but this is Conjecture
c. 1763
(The British Museum)

An Experiment on a Bird in an Air Pump

by Joseph Wright of Derby 1768
(National Portrait Gallery, London)

Brigadier General Otho Holland Williams wearing a Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle
by Charles Wilson Peale

Judge Ebenezer Devotion of Connecticut Wearing a Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle

by Winthrop Chandler 1772
(Lyman Allen Art Museum, New London, Connecticut)

Judge Ebenezer Devotion of Connecticut Wearing a Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle

by Winthrop Chandler 1772
(Lyman Allen Art Museum, New London, Connecticut)

William Duguid Wearing a Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle

Prince Demah Barnes 1773
(Metropolitan Museum of Art)

William Duguid Wearing a Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle

Prince Demah Barnes 1773
(Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Francis and Sanders Malbone of Newport, Rhode Island

by Gilbert Stuart 1773
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Detail: Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle for Closing the Shirt

Francis and Sanders Malbone of Newport, Rhode Island
by Gilbert Stuart 1773
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Detail: Wearing of a Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle

"The Sharp Family" by Johan Joseph Zofanny c. 1779 - 1781
(The National Portrait Gallery)

Detail: Wearing of a Heart Shaped Shirt Buckle

"The Sharp Family" by Johan Joseph Zofanny c. 1779 - 1781
(The National Portrait Gallery)

Master & Lieutenant William Bligh of the H.M.S. Resolution, Later Captain of the H.M.S. Bounty, Wearing a Masonic Shirt Buckle
by John Webber 1776
(National Portrait Gallery, Canberra)

Gold
Sleeve Buttons

American Gold Sleeve Buttons from Boston, Massachusetts

c. 1720 - 1750
(Winterthur)

American Gold Sleeve Buttons from Boston, Massachusetts

by James Butler c. 1751 - 1776
(Winterthur)

American Gold Sleeve Buttons from Boston, Massachusetts

by James Butler c. 1751 - 1776
(Winterthur)

American Gold Sleeve Buttons from Boston, Massachusetts

c. 1750
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

American Gold Sleeve Buttons from Boston, Massachusetts, on a Childs Linen Shirt
c. 1764
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

American Gold Sleeve Buttons from Newport, Rhode Island

Probably by Jonathan Clark (1705 - 1770) c. 1740
(Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Silver
Sleeve Buttons

English Silver Sleeve Buttons

c. 1770 - 1800
(Winterthur)

American Silver Sleeve Button from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

by Francis Richardson c. 1700 - 1800
(Winterthur)

Brass & Copper

Sleeve Buttons

Copper Alloy Sleeve Buttons

Kings Reach Archeology Site (c. 1689 - 1711), Maryland
(Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum)
For More on Maryland Artifacts & Sleeve Buttons used during the 17th - 18th centuries, please visit:
http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/SmallFinds/SleeveButtons-Cufflinks-Studs/index-sleevebuttons-cufflinks.html

Copper Alloy Sleeve Buttons

Antietam Furnace Archeology Site (c. 1675 - 1765), Maryland
(Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum)
For More on Maryland Artifacts & Sleeve Buttons used during the 17th - 18th centuries, please visit:
http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/SmallFinds/SleeveButtons-Cufflinks-Studs/index-sleevebuttons-cufflinks.html

Copper Alloy Sleeve Buttons

Bennet Point Archeology Site (c. 1675 - 1765), Maryland
(Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum)
For More on Maryland Artifacts & Sleeve Buttons used during the 17th - 18th centuries, please visit:
http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/SmallFinds/SleeveButtons-Cufflinks-Studs/index-sleevebuttons-cufflinks.html

Sleeve Buttons found at Fort Dobbs

Situated in the Piedmont region of North Carolina
c. 1750
(Fort Dobbs)

Gilded Copper Sleeve Buttons Recovered from the Wreck of a Mercantile Ship Bound for Philadelphia
Sunk off Lewes Beach, Delaware c. 1762 - 1775
(State of Delaware)

Sleeve Buttons Recovered from the Wreck of a Mercantile Ship Bound for Philadelphia
Sunk off Lewes Beach, Delaware c. 1762 - 1775
(State of Delaware)

Sleeve Buttons Found in the Thames River

2nd Half 18th Century
(London Mudlark)

TALLIO
Sporting
Sleeve Buttons

TALLIO Sleeve Button

18th Century
(Colonial Williamsburg Foundation)

TALLIO Sleeve Button

18th Century
(Ward Oles Collection)

TALLIO Sleeve Button

18th Century
(Private Collection)

TALLIO Sleeve Button

18th Century
(Private Collection)

Running Fox Sleeve Button

18th Century
(WWW. Beltplates.com)

Royal
Commemorative
Sleeve Buttons

English Dual Hearts and Clasped Hands Sleeve Button Marked Fide et Amore (By Faith and Love)
Recovered in the Thames River
Possibly Made to Commemorate the Marriage of King George III and Queen Charlotte in 1761
(Mike Walker & London Mudlark)

English Crown & Double Hearts Sleeve Button Recovered at Fort Ticonderoga
Motif Commemorating the Marriage & Coronation of King George III and Queen Charlotte in 1761
(Fort Ticonderoga)

English Copper Alloy Crown & Double Hearts Sleeve Button Recovered at the Sanders Point Excavation Site
Motif Commemorating the Marriage & Coronation of King George III and Queen Charlotte in 1761
(Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum - State Museum of Archeology - Diagnostic Artifacts in Maryland Website)

English Crown & Double Hearts Sleeve Button

Motif Commemorating the Marriage & Coronation of King George III and Queen Charlotte in 1761
(At the Eastern Door - Ward Oles Collection)

English Crown & Double Hearts Sleeve Button in Sterling Silver

Motif Commemorating the Marriage & Coronation of King George III and Queen Charlotte in 1761
(Ward Oles Collection)

English Crown & Double Hearts Silver Commemoration Medal to Show as a Comparison
Commemorating the Marriage of King George III and Queen Charlotte in 1761
(Fitzwilliam Museum)

Metal & Crystal

Sleeve Buttons

Pair of English Gold & Crystal Sleeve Buttons

Early 18th Century
(Victoria & Albert)

Pair of English or American Stuart Crystal Sleeve Buttons

Mid 18th Century
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

English or American Gold & Quartz Sleeve Buttons

c. 1760 - 1800
(Historic New England)

Metal & Paste (Glass)

Sleeve Buttons

Silver & Paste Sleeve Buttons

c. 1780
(Ward Oles Collection)

English Silver & Paste Sleeve Buttons

c. 1780
(Private Collection)

Silver & Paste Sleeve Buttons Recovered in Harvard Yard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
c. 1780
(Peabody Museum of Archeology and Ethnology)

English Metal & Paste Sleeve Buttons

18th Century
(Mike Walker - London Mudlark)

English Metal & Paste Sleeve Buttons

18th Century
(Mike Walker - London Mudlark)

Silver & Paste Shirt Buttons

Worn by Acton Minuteman Solomon Smith on April 19th, 1775 and at Bunker Hill June 17, 1775
Worn by Smith at the Dedication of the Bunker Hill Monument
(Acton Historical Society)

Paste Sleeve Buttons Owned by Captain John Parker, Commander of the Lexington Militia at the Battle of Lexington
(Lexington Historical Society - Photo by Alex Cain)

Detail of Metal & Opaque Black Glass Sleeve Buttons: Dr. Joseph Warren
by John Singleton Copley c. 1765
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Detail of Metal & Opaque Black Glass Sleeve Buttons: Dr. Joseph Warren
by John Singleton Copley c. 1765
(Museum of Fine Arts, Boston)

Recreated Sleeve Silver & Opaque Black Glass Sleeve Buttons made by William Hettinger III and Tailoring by Neal Hurst
Note the Tight Fit of the Sleeve and Cuff, Typical of Fashion in the 1770s

Copper & Glass Sleeve Buttons

Mid 18th Century
(William Hettinger III Collection)

Copper Alloy & Blue Faceted Paste (Glass) Sleeve Buttons

Oxon Hill/Addison Archeology Site (c. 1720 - 1750), Maryland
(Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum)
For More on Maryland Artifacts & Sleeve Buttons used during the 17th - 18th centuries, please visit:
http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/SmallFinds/SleeveButtons-Cufflinks-Studs/index-sleevebuttons-cufflinks.html

Copper Alloy & Green Faceted Paste (Glass) Sleeve Buttons

Saunders Point Archeology Site (c. 1770 - 1790), Maryland
(Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum)
For More on Maryland Artifacts & Sleeve Buttons used during the 17th - 18th centuries, please visit:
http://www.jefpat.org/diagnostic/SmallFinds/SleeveButtons-Cufflinks-Studs/index-sleevebuttons-cufflinks.html

Metal & Stone

Sleeve Buttons

English or European Silver & Agate Sleeve Buttons

Mid 18th Century
(Victoria & Albert Museum)

Metal & Enamel

Sleeve Buttons

Copper & Enamel Sleeve Buttons

Mid 18th Century
(William Hettinger III Collection)

Military
Sleeve Buttons

IRISH VOLUNTEER
Sleeve Button

BRITISH VOLUNTEER
Sleeve Button

Liberty & Wilkes

Sleeve Buttons

LIBERTY & PEACE Sleeve Buttons

18th Century
(Private Collection)

Glass LIBERTY Sleeve Button Insert Excavated at Fort Montgomery along the Hudson River in New York
Built by the Continentals in 1776 & Captured & Burned by the British in 1777
(Fort Montgomery)

Wilkes & Liberty Sleeve Button Insert

Found in the Barracks of Trenton, New Jersey
(Old Barracks Museum)

WILKES AND LIBERTY 45 Sleeve Button Insert

Found in the Excavations of Fort Ticonderoga
(Fort Ticonderoga Museum)

No. 45 Sleeve Button

(Private Collection)
For More on the Significance of the 45 in 18th Century England & Her Colonies,
Please Examine the Wilkes & Liberty Slideshow

45 Sleeve Buttons Found in Hannastown, Pennsylvania

(Westmoreland County Historical Society)
For More on the Significance of the 45 in 18th Century England & Her Colonies,
Please Examine the Wilkes & Liberty Slideshow

Mixed
Sleeve Buttons

Shirt Buttons Recovered from the Ephraim Sprague House Archeological Site in Lebanon, Connecticut
c. 1750
(State of Connecticut)

Sleeve Buttons
18th Century
(Ward Oles Collection)

Sleeve Buttons
18th Century
(Ward Oles Collection)

Acknowledgements

Without the help of our friends who generously support us with

their research and materials, none of these slideshows would be
possible. We would like to personally thank and recognize Sharon
Burnston, Paul Dickfoss, William Hettinger III, Adam Hodges LeClaire, Neal Hurst, James Mullins, Ward Oles, and last, but
certainly not least, Steven Rayner for their contributions to this
edition.

Acknowledgements
The material contained within these slideshows is presented for educational purposes only. The
18th Century Material Culture Resource Center does not personally own any of the items
depicted herein and is indebted to the countless museums, libraries, and private collectors who
willingly share their collections with the public through the internet. Every attempt has been
made to credit these organizations and individuals for their contributions as best as possible.
If there is a question you have regarding a particular item featured within a presentation, please
contact the 18th Century Material Culture Resource Center and we will try to answer your
inquiry as best as possible. If for any reason you feel there is any item that should not be
presented here, or if there is an error in any listing, or if you know the source for any item whose
credit is unknown, please inform us and we will make sure your concern is addressed as soon as
possible.
Thank you!
- The 18th Century Material Culture Resource Center