On buttons in the 19th century on the basis of "Kurier Warszawski" and other Polish periodicals

Abstract

In the 19th century buttons were important details of clothing, especially of men’s garments. In addition to their practical role, they had signifi cant decorative and informative functions; they not only reflected current tendencies in fashion but also conveyed various messages, including political ones. The article is based on publications from the Polish press, first of all from Kurier Warszawski.The data come from the period between the early 1820s to the late 1860s, with occasional references to the turn of the 18th century and the beginning of the 20th century.Buttons were used to convey symbolic and political messages, especially during the French Revolution. Their number and arrangement refl ected current trends in clothing, in particular in men’s fashion, especially as regarded overcoats (e.g. frock coats). In the early 1820s men’s garments, e.g. tailcoats, had numerous buttons; for other garments, such as waistcoats and shirts, the textile, cut, form and ornaments were more important. The number of buttons in men’s clothes changed: in the fi rst decades of the 19th c. many were used, but the following decades saw fewer and fewer of them, with a significant decrease in the mid-19th c. In the second half of the 19th c. and the early 20th c. few buttons were used. Buttons were made of varied materials: wood (including ebony), bone, mother-of-pearl, metals and alloys (silver, bronze, brass, lead, tin, zinc, white metal, some were gilded or silver-plated), colourful glass, precious stones, precious metals. In the early decades of the 19th c. metal buttons were most popular, especially for tailcoats and waistcoats. The size of buttons was also signifi cant; most impressive in size and material (wood, horn, tortoiseshell, but also gold, diamonds, rubies or coral) were shirt buttons. Women’s garments also had varied buttons, e.g. made of onyx or jade, gilded, enameled, set with small pearls or diamonds.Buttons also differed in shape — they could be convex and plain, or fl at and ornamented, or square; some were stylized to imitate designs from earlier epochs. Decorations often alluded to sensational current events in culture, entertainment or science; for instance zoomorphic motifs were popular. In 1861 it was in vogue to decorate buttons using the photographic technique. Buttons could also cover mechanisms of watches or music boxes, or serve to fasten a watch chain to a tailcoat or frockcoat. In the second half of the 19th c. in Mazovia mother-of-pearl buttons were commonly produced by the putting-out system, as a result of the development of textile industry. At the beginning of the 20th c. button-making grew into a national industry, especially in Podlasie and Galicia, raising the morale of peasants and resulting in a reduction of economic migration. Changes in button fashion are diffi cult to trace since information was not published in the press regularly; event women’s fashion journals rarely focused on this topic. Thus, the mentions found in Kurier Warszawski concerning buttons worn by Varsovians, their range offered by Warsaw shops, and their prices are particularly valuable.