Thanks Mary for your usual dazzling erudition. I am trying to write
something about some C19 button waste found in the garden of Leicester's
University VC. Actually I haven't got the time (I am supposed to be writing
3 chapters of the Gwent County History -an unpaid job) to do much but if I
don't there will not be any sort of record. In C19 UK looks very like a
cottage industry done by low paid women and children and one suspects
finished off elsewhere. Button waste ahas been also excavated found from a
slum complex in Chester but the documents have no evidence of button makers
(Keith Matthews pers com).
There are button blanks associated with metal workshops from Philadelphia:
http://www.culturalresourcegroup.com/projects/philadelphia1.htm

paul courtney
Leicester
UK


----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary C. Beaudry" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 09, 2003 8:04 PM
Subject: Bone buttons - understudied artifact?


> Hello, all,
>
> I have been writing about bone artifacts in another context, and have
extracted
> the tiny bit I wrote about bone button making in case the list of
references
> would be of use or interest to anyone (though to my regret, I've never
seen the
> article that Paul Courtney is seeking).  I'm writing about the artifacts
of
> needlework and sewing, and buttons are not included in this category (they
are
> more accurately grouped with artifacts of personal adornment), though
> manufacturing evidence is a wholly different matter.  Most of the bone
"buttons"
> found on historical sites are in fact button blanks or button backs that
would
> have been covered with some sort of fabric, though not necessarily in all
cases.
>  I think that the fact that sometimes the button making evidence seems to
be at
> the level of small-scale home industry indicates there was likely some
sort of
> commercial outlet for this work.  But as I said, I have dealt with this
topic
> only tangentially.  One object lesson in studying bone working is that no
one
> should ever assume that a slaughterhouse site would necessarily contain a
great
> deal of bone waste or wonder where the bones got to if they are not
present.
>
> Mary C. Beaudry
> A few notes on bone buttons
> Extract from a manuscript in preparation, on a different topic!
>
>         Evidence for manufacture of bone buttons or button blanks,
consisting of the
> artifacts as well as manufacturing waste (most commonly flat portions of
cattle
> bone, though other mammal, and even reptile bone was used at times), is
often
> found in contexts associated with plantation workshops or with the living
> quarters of enslaved Africans (e.g., at Brimstone Hill in St. Kitts, WI,
at
> Monticello in Virginia) as well as at the encampments and villages of free
or
> self-emanicipated Africans (e.g. Fort Mose in Florida) (Klippel and
Schroedl
> 1999; Kelso 1997; MacMahon and Deagan 1996: 19). This has given rise to
the
> interpretation that African craft workers fashioned these items, which
they
> undoubtedly did in some contexts, but similar deposits of manufacturing
debris
> have been found in Europe at both medieval and post-medieval sites as well
as
> from a number of late 18th-century British and American military sites in
North
> America (Klippel and Schroedl 1999: 228?229).  Such waste is also found at
> almshouses and other institutional sites.  Quantities of button backs and
blanks
> as well as debris at the site of New York City?s first almshouse (ca.
1730)
> suggest that "button making may have been on of the tasks required of
Almshouse
> residents" (Cantwell and Wall 2001: 276, Figure 15.9).
>         Bone button-making made use of flat portions of animal bone that
would otherwise
> have been discarded as butchery waste, as did scale-making, that is, the
> production of scales or side-plates for knife and fork handles. In Britain
more
> attention has been given to the working of cattle horn cores (for a
summary, see
> Robertson 1989;) than to manufacture of objects from long bone (but see
Armitage
> 1982, MacGregor 1985).  Horn was another material used for making scales,
> although the horn had to be rendered flat after it was softened; large
deposits
> of horn cores are often cited as evidence of the initial steps in this
process
> (See, e.g., Armitage 1982: 98, 102?104; Robertson 1989; West 1995: 31).
>
> References
> Armitage, Philip L.  1982.  Studies on the Remains of Domestic Livestock
from
> Roman, Medieval, and Early Modern London:  Objectives and Methods.  In
> Environmental Archaeology in the Urban Context, ed. A. R. Hall and H. K.
> Kenward, pp. 94?106. Research Reports 43.   Council for British
Archaeology, London.
> Cantwell, Anne-Marie, and Diana diZerega Wall.  2001.  Unearthing Gotham:
The
> Archaeology of New York City.  Yale University Press, New Haven.
> Kelso, William M.  1997.  Archaeology at Monticello:  Artifacts of
Everyday Life
> in the Plantation Community.  Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation,
> Charlottesville, Va.
> Klippel, Walter E., and Gerald F. Schroedl.  1999.  African Slave
Craftsmen and
> Single-hole Bone Discs from Brimstone Hill, St Kitts, West Indies.
> Post-Medieval Archaeology 33:  222?232.
> MacGregor, Arthur.  1985.  Bone, Antler, Ivory and Horn:  The Technology
of
> Skeletal Materials Since the Roman Period.  Croom Helm, London.
> MacMahon, Darcie, and Kathleen A. Deagan.  1996.  Legacy of Fort Mose:  A
> Florida Marsh Yields the Remnants of Colonial America?s First Free Black
> Settlement.  Archaeology 49:54?58.
> Robertson, J. C.  1989.  Counting London?s Horn Cores:  Sampling What?
> Post-Medieval Archaeology 23:1?10.
> West, Barbara.  1995.  The Case of the Missing Victuals.  Historical
Archaeology
> 29(2):20?42.