Hi David
Firstly, I will forgive you for referring to a civilian yacht club as a 'unit'!
I am primarily a naval button collector with an interest in the Royal Navy and the old imperial navy's of Australia, Canada, India and South Africa. But I have come across a lot of yacht club buttons during the time I have been collecting.
And although I used to own a boat I was never a member of a yacht club - far too swanky for me!
One of the problems with yacht club buttons is that the clubs are continually altering the designs of their buttons, which is why manufacturers pattern books are so useful.
Re the variation in the types of buttons, with specific reference to your Royal Albert Yacht Club buttons. I have seen buttons for this club in a variety of materials - black horn, gilt, brass, and with a rope edging to the button and without a rope edging. And it is the same story with many other yacht clubs.
I was once told the reason for some of the variations - and apparently it all goes back to the invention of the blazer in the 1830s!
At that time the captain of the frigate H.M.S. Blazer dressed his gig's crew in blue-and-white-striped brass-buttoned jackets. This was the origin of the jacket we now know as the blazer. They became very popular with Victorian yacht clubs, with the crews of the larger yachts being dressed in blazers when ashore or in harbour. However, the owners of the yachts did not want to be associated by dress with their crews, so they tended to wear dark-blue reefer jackets with black buttons bearing the design of their yacht club.
So began a trend that can still be seen today in the more upmarket yacht clubs. To quote my source, "the visiting plebs, particularly those not owning a boat, will appear with brass-buttoned blazers while the posh, vessel-owning members wear reefers with black buttons sporting the club motif: the best made of horn".
These days few yacht clubs still have this distinction in buttons. It is all very strange as it's a complete reversal of what was found in the Navy where the officers had the shiny buttons and the ratings had the black horn ones!
I don't know if this was the case in all yacht clubs or not but it was certainly once a very popular 'trend'.
You also made reference to the Royal Albion Yact Club. According to my records that button was actually worn by the Royal Anglesey Yacht Club.
You also referred to the three different versions of the same manufacturers name on the back of the buttons you have. As you are probably aware, one of the best ways of dating a button is by the name the individual manufacturers use on the back of the button. This can change as the company changes their address, amalgamates with another company or a son joins the firm, etc. So different versions of the company name are used at different times - therefore enabling the button to be approximately dated.
I'll check my records and see what I can tell you about your buttons and get back to you.
I hope this has been of some help!
Pete
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