File:Post Medieval copper alloy button or cloak fastener (FindID 499562).jpg

English: A Post Medieval copper alloy button or cloak fastener dating to the 17th century. This is a cast one-piece button or clock fastener with integral drilled shank and punched figurative design on the front surface. The button is discoidal with a convex front and concave back. On the reverse is the perforated shank for attachment. The shank is trapezoidal with a rectangular section and blunt end. The front surface is decorated with a punched design depicting the crowned, facing mask of a king. There are curlicues and ring and dot motifs around the king's face all set against a cross-hatched background. There is a border of punched annulets around the edge of the button.

Read (2005:45 no.160) illustrates a very similar example with a crowned bust but the background decoration differs slightly. The author notes that "17th century contexts of the Thames foreshore or datable archaeological spoil heaps in London have produced many of these buttons. The datable evidence suggests that these buttons became fashionable about the middle of the 17th century." Also, "paired buttons have been found attached together by wire which would function as cloak fasteners. Single buttons are known. These artefacts possibly performed a dual role as both true buttons and cloak fasteners, perhaps worn as en-suite items." (ibid p. 36).

Dimensions: thickness: 10.18mm; diameter: 28.44mm; weight: 10.74g.

Reference: Read, B. 2005. Metal Buttons C.900BC - AD1700. Portcullis Publishing, Langport, Somerset.