Hello David
Many thanks for the input.
I note your comment "I have been told that Gaunts produced the buttons in response to a specific request and that there was a production run of 500 (large size) for each of the buttons". Very interesting as I was told years ago that the impetus for the reproductions came not from Gaunts themselves but from Gwen Squire, the button book author. She is supposed to have persuaded Gaunts to issue the reproductions, although, once again, I have never seen any real confirmation of this, so possibly it is just another rumour. However, her book "Buttons A Guide For Collectors" was published in 1972 and she would have been working on it for a few years previously, so she would have been in contact with Gaunts at about the right time.
I would dearly love to see any list of those buttons they reproduced as this would obviously answer a whole host of questions! Surely someone, somewhere must have this information?
As for the date the 'Gaunt London' backmark was introduced, you said "In my opinion, the backmark was probably introduced c. 1949/1950." This is the conclusion I have always leaned towards. As with most other changes I suspect they continued to use 'old' and 'new' backmarks alongside each other for a good few years, just to confuse future collectors!
Roger
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