Thread Topic: Badge/Button Identity
Topic Originator: Syd
Post Date November 28, 2016 @ 4:58 PM |
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| Syd |
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Hi, I found this what I think is a button in the fifties when we were working down Pinfold Lane Building the bungalows on the right hand side, going down toward Priory Road, I have asked around over the years re. identifying, to no avail, I am not even sure what the letters are.
It is made of a base metal with what looks like a silver coating on it, any help would be great.
Hi Syd. Will add the photo in a couple of days. Kate
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| syd |
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Thanks Kate, I even thought it may have had something to do with Brown's Hospital.
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| Michael Lynas |
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Hi Syd
I wonder if it is an early Stamford School Blazer badge. It looks very much like The Phoenix on a Woolpack at the top.
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| syd |
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That was my first thought Michael, but their bird is looking the opposite way.
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| Michael Lynas |
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Just been checking some old school photos and I think the head on your badge is the same way.
However there are recent photos at the start of the School website with the head facing the opposite way!.
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| Linda Ball (nee Johnson) |
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Hi Syd, I remember you emailed me about this some time ago. I showed the photos to Tony a metal detecting friend, who immediately said: 'Livery button.' Date: second half of the C18th, probably when landowners were accumulating large estates and servants began to wear livery... Buttons are one of the most common finds for metal detectors. Larger buttons, like this one, were probably fixed to the leather bridle or harness of estate horses.
This one displays a pictorial crest (non-heraldic because it doesn't include a coronet or other device to denote station). Animals and birds were common and possibly associated with guilds or occupations. This looks like a stork or crane with a fish in its beak on a background of water - sea/river being significant in the family business, ie. merchant - poss. Browne family shipping wool to the Port of Calais from east coast? The stork appears to be sitting on a woolsack - a common device to denote wool merchant, and the emblem adopted by the Browne family. The Browne stork imagery was possibly a reference to the Stock or Stokke family. Sir William Browne (1410-1489) wool merchant and local benefactor was Merchant of the Staple of Calais. His wife was Margaret Stokke. The stork appears to be facing to the left, unlike the Browne emblem adopted by Stamford School which is facing to the right. The button also has a monogram or landowner's initials. In this case it looks more like a monogram of B - an embellished initial letter. Looking up animals associated with different families, Browne commonly have a stork/crane in their family crest? So this could all point to the livery being that of the Browne family and its descendants? So further research re the Browne family livery might be the next line of inquiry.
National Button Bulletin, July 2008, p 143. Livery buttons - non-military
'Typically depicting heraldic designs of the family, livery buttons were worn on uniforms (livery) of servants and only occasionally by the owner. (Also harness, carriages, etc. would carry this. Furniture custom made might also display the same images and monogram of the estate owner/family.) Major types include achievements and crests; there are also badges, initials and monograms. Badges are a relatively rare early form of livery button originally used to display a family motto. Later ones displayed decorative insignia only. Badges do not meet the heraldic requirements of crests or achievements. Most livery buttons were made of metal, but horn, pearl, and glass mounted in metal exist. When the master of the house died, metal buttons were darkened for a period of mourning.'
However, Tony the metal detectorist said don't get too excited about making a connection with the location. Someone may have thrown it out on their midden along with household rubbish. It was at some point spread on the field. Best wishes, Linda
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