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.