307 (31)

279

Buttons

other side of the garment - was recognised in the pieces of 14th-century clothing described above (Nevinson 1977), see fig 180. In the absence of evidence for corresponding holes for any of the metal buttons described above, it is unknown in each case whether they were functional or purely decorative. A rather similarly shaped object of lead/tin (private collection, recovered along with 14th-century items from spoił derived from the Billingsgate site) may have been a form of pendant rather than a functional button (fig 179, second from bottom). It has a long shank, a collet for a stone (now missing) on the front, and a series of decorative lobes in relief on the back. The decoration on the back would not have been visible if the object were in use as a button; it might perhaps have served, like some buttons at the collar (see fig 176, and Pinder 1952, figs 43, 45 & 79) to be seen as an ornament most of the time, while it was always available for use to fasten the garment against the cold or rain. Neither possibility can be eliminated for any of the metal items described above, though the plainer examples are perhaps unlikely to have been purely decorative (cf Nevinson 1977, 38).

Most of the excavated London buttons are very plain. The cast ones include what seems to be the earliest known example in Britain so far of these now universal items (no. 1376, dated to c. 1200-1230, fig 178), and they span the whole of the subseąuent period considered in this study. Although Newton (1980, 4, 15-18) has argued from the Great Wardrobe accounts of royal purchases that buttons - including silk-covered silver and silver-gilt ones - were introduced for the sleeves and at the front of the tunic with a change to tighter fitting fashions around 1340, at least four of the solid buttons listed above predate this by 80 years or morę (nos. 1376-1379; the first was lost over a century earlier). Numbers 1376, 1378 and 1380 have beading around the edge, no. 1379 has beading around a glass stone, and no. 1381 has a central star motif (fig 178).

Among the metals used (see table 6), tin figures prominently. In at least two examples, no. 1381 and the hollow decorated button no. 1396 (figs 178 & 179), analysis shows that it is very pure. Number 1384 retains its mirror-like, highly reflective surface, which must have been pro-duced by special polishing (its appearance in colour pl 7B is the result of only gentle manuał cleaning by conservation staff); it is also very hard, a fragment having splintered off when it was knocked (a softer alloy or pure tin would probably have sustained a dent, but remained unbroken). Numbers 1385-86, 1388, 1391 and 1393 have an added coating of tin to make them shiny. Despite the plain shape of these buttons, a row of the very shiny ones would have been very striking on a garment.

The prominence of relatively pure tin in the buttons from prior to the late 14th century (nos. 1376-79, fig 178) contrasts with its near absence from girdle fittings (buckles, mounts etc - see table 4 p 25) of comparably early datę. This suggests that the manufacturing traditions may have been separate, at least until copper-alloy sheeting was used for buttons, probably from the

1 Copper l 1 i	-1-1-!-1- I I II i - i 3 i i i i ii I 1 li		12	1 1 1 1	—i-1- i l 1 l I I i i	1	17
1 l Lead / tin ^1	! . II I I li ^1 1 ^1 3 i i i i ii		1	1 1 1 1 1 i	t I I I 1 l I I	2	8
Years (AD) n Ceramic Phase	i i i i l i 50 1200 l i I I i I	i i i | i i ! ^1250! ! i i i i i i	i i | i i 1300	1 1 1 1 1 i 1350 I I '——10—i i	i | i l 1400 l I ^11 ^ - 1 .	i i i 1450 -i n w	Total 25
	f* o I I_		^1 9		11	12—►

Table 6 Buttons - metals used