The regularity of circles always draws my eye. So whether mudlarking or beachcombing, I often find buttons: in shallow Thames pools or wedged side-on between stones, amongst the estuary shingle or Cornwall’s strandline plastic.
Those I found while writing Rag and Bone include everything from bone coat buttons and Victorian fly buttons to single-holed ‘death’s head buttons’ and the shanked metal kind that decorated Georgian frock coats. Most from Cornish beaches are wave-worn plastic, but those from the Thames have often been beautifully preserved by the anaerobic river-bottom mud.
![](https://lisawoollett.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/web-buttons-beads-final-Version-2.jpg)
For me some of the most evocative are made from bone, and are smoothly finger-worn from repeated buttoning and unbuttoning – perhaps over generations. For in the past, especially amongst poorer families, buttons would invariably be cut from worn-out clothing and saved for reuse. (Like so many others, I whiled away countless 1970s hours sorting my nan’s button box, the way my mum had in the 1950s).
![](https://lisawoollett.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/bone-outs-Version-2.jpg)
On the Thames I’ve also found the deeply-scalloped waste (above) from making bone buttons or beads by hand. These were drilled using ‘button-bits’ and are hard to date as the technique changed little over centuries, until the introduction of machines in the 18th century.
![](https://lisawoollett.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2-floss-picks-1024x488.jpg)
Another favourite is the button above, shown on the left in situ on the Thames. When I found this I thought it was a bell, but learned later that it’s a pewter ‘blow hole’ button, dating from around 1650 to 1750 (with thanks to the Facebook group The River Thames Mudlarking Finds).
![](https://lisawoollett.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/DSC2548-Version-9-1.jpg)
Above are the ‘moulds’ from two ‘death’s head buttons’. Often made from wood or bone, these were painstakingly hand-wrapped in thread – perhaps silk or linen – and take their name from the crisscross pattern’s resemblance to a skull and cross bones.
![](https://lisawoollett.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/DSC9620-Version-7-1.jpg)
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![](https://lisawoollett.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/arts-council-grant-logo-blog-1024x175.jpg)
There is more on the ‘Travelling Museum of Finds’ here
![](https://lisawoollett.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/DSC7803-Version-3-2-4.jpg)
and reviews of Rag and Bone (John Murray, June 2020) here