Although we're discussing button books, these are two excellent articles that I end up citing a lot.  

Sprague, Roderick
     2002 China or Prosser Button Identification and Dating.  Historical Archaeology 36(2):111-127. 
    1998 The Literature and Location of the Phoenix Button.  Historical Archaeology 32(2):56-77.

and more on Phoenix buttons:

Strong, Emory
    1975 The Enigma of the Phoenix Button. Historical Archaeology, 9:74-80.
    1960 Phoenix Buttons. American Antiquity, 25(3):418-419. 

We have roughly 100 phoenix buttons here at the museum from a site along the Columbia River, and a good percentage of them are perforated for suspension.  They all have a phoenix with "Je Renais de Mes Cendres" beneath the bird, (I am reborn from my ashes)--not quite an accurate phrase for Christophe I of Haiti, who, as Ron indicated, was deposed in 1820 and then killed himself, if I recall correctly. 

Interesting to hear of their reuse as forms of closure by Spanish soldiers, rather than reuse primarily as ornament, not closure, in Native American contexts, which is the case with this collection.  It would also be interesting to hear if any have turned up outside of the West coast in the past few years, since Rick's 1998 article did a wonderful job of tracking down the current distribution (California, Hawaii and the Columbia River)

Laurie Burgess


Department of Anthropology
National Museum of Natural History
Smithsonian Institution
10th and Constitution Avenues NW
Washington, DC 20560