Paul,

Thanks for your response. I would really like to read those publications
once they become available.   You cite Keith Matthews in reference to
the site in Chester.  Do you have his contact info by any chance?   I am
intrigued by the workshop in north Leicester and would like to hear more
about it.

You are correct in your assertion that most machine-made button blanks
are made from two directional cutting.  The fact, however, that blanks
were cut from two directions does not necessarily mean they were machine
(power)-made.  An article, also in Post-med. Arch (Klippel and Schroedl
1999)--mentioned in Mary Beaudry's email, documents one-hole bone disc
production at Brimstone Hill, St. Kitts, West Indies using a center bit
and a hand-held brace.  These were cut from two directions as well.  The
first face was cut until the center prong penetrated the bone slab. The
slab was turned over.  The center prong of the cutting bit was threaded
into the newly formed hole from the other face.  Cutting continued until
disc was free of the slab.


Paul M. Matchen
Archaeological Research Laboratory
Department of Anthropology
University of Tennessee


-----Original Message-----
From: HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of paul
courtney
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 6:37 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Bone buttons - understudied artifact?

Not much - there is a paper in Post-med Arch which I will dig out
tomorrow
on Birmingham button making but it is largely about metal buttons. In my
email I referred to the evidence for cottage bone making from the recent
dig
in Chester but this has not yet been published. Re the Leicester finds I
have decided that they are actually debris from a powered workshop -
they
were cut from both sides unlike every other bone blank in Europe over
the
last 1000 years. The workshop is probaly one documented in north
Leicester
c. 1870s and may have shipped in bags of manure to the house in. S.
Leicester as it was  a byline of the documented bone shop. Plenty of
documentary evidence for bone button making but 19th century arcaheology
is
still undeveloped here. Actually that reminds me to finish writing
something
up on the Leicester debris especially as I have to give the bits back-
all
very tricky as its a private collection and I really have millions of
other
things to do. I am going to have to ask the University VC if I can even
publish. Sorry I can't be of more help.

paul


----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul M. Matchen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 2004 8:06 PM
Subject: Re: Bone buttons - understudied artifact?


> Paul,
>
> Do you know of any references for bone button manfacturing in the UK?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Paul Matchen
> Archaeological Research Laboratory
> University of Tennessee
>
> On Thu, 9 Jan 2003 21:21:57 +0000, paul courtney
> <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>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.
>