VI

[3748 Hussar]

Hi all,

Can anyone date this button

Cheers in advance

Tony c

[Cribyn]

Hello Tony

Your button is not in Parkyn's book, so there is no quick, easy answer. He starts off with an officer's button of 1820 which had the more traditional castle design.

Yours may well be from the same period, obviously after 1815, but can we see a photo of the back please as construction and/or backmark can often make dating a button easier.

Regards
Roger

[davidwyke]

Hi Tony

There is some confusion about this regt's early buttons. As Roger says, Parkyn shows the castle design to have been worn from c. 1820 but I'm not sure that's correct.

Other collectors (including me) consider the castle design to be earlier (c.1790-1810) and that yours was worn c. 1816-1840. Your button has only been recorded in silver, incidentally.

As Roger says, an image of the back might help date your particular button.

David

PS....I started a thread a couple of months ago which shows the castle button and mentions yours but got no response.

[3748 Hussar]

Hi roger,

See attached pic

[3748 Hussar]

Cheers Dave,

Your post must have come in whilst adding the rear shot

Tony c

Originally Posted by 3748 Hussar

Hi roger,

See attached pic

[davidwyke]

Hi Tony

Looking at the back, if I was pushed for a date I would say -

Castle pattern - c. 1790 - 1820
Your pattern - c. 1820 - 1840 (your particular button towards the end of this period)

but it's possible there could have been another pattern in between.

David

[3748 Hussar]

Attached castle type buttons VI

Cheers

Tony C

[3748 Hussar]

Roger & David

Many thanks

Regards Tony C

[davidwyke]

Hi Tony

Those are the later (post 1855) Castle patterns. The early one is flat, silver, engraved. There is a picture of it in my post of a couple of months ago.

David

[Cribyn]

Hello Tony

Thanks for the second photo but on this occasion I am not sure that it adds much information. This type of construction, flat back with soldered on shank is, more or less, still being used and 'Firmins London' does not give much of a clue either!

I would be inclined to go with David's suggested dates. It is an early button and the battle honour 'Waterloo' was awarded in December 1815, so 1816 seems a very good starting date. It may only have been in use for a very short period.

Very nice button whatever the dates!

Regards
Roger

[3748 Hussar]

Cheers again David

Regards

Tony C

[beau90]

Hi Tony, I believe you have an officers undress button, Gwen Squires dates it as 1816-1840 but whether or not this is correct I don't know.

[4966Ian]

Hi folks,

Funnily enough I had asked Dixon Pickup about this pattern of button some time back. The button in question was Gilt and had the same "FIRMIN LONDON" backmark.
Dixon's opinion, was that this was an Officer's Undress button circa 1830s-1840s.

Hope that helps.

Ian

[davidwyke]

Hi Ian & everyone

That's very interesting. I would have expected them to change to a gilt version c.1830 but have never seen one and didn't know if they existed.

So, a likely timeline for 6D buttons is probably: (dates are approximate) =

c. 1790-1816/1820 = the engraved silver castle pattern, which I pictured in a thread a couple of months ago. (DP agrees with these dates, I think Parkyn puts it slightly later).

c. 1816/1820 - 1830 - the "Waterloo" pattern in silver as shown by Tony.

c. 1830 - 1840 - the "Waterloo" pattern in gilt as mentioned by Ian.

c. 1840 - 1855/1860 - QVC/castle in circlet (gilt).

c. 1855/1860 - (early 1900's?) - Castle & "6" (as shown in the group of buttons above).

(c. early 1900's?) -c. 1929 - Castle & "VI" (as shown in the group of buttons above).

As regards the later (post 1855) castle buttons, I'm not sure if anyone has established exactly when the "6" buttons were replaced by "VI" but it might have been earlier than the early 1900's and no doubt there would have been a period when both were being worn.

Even though the 6th Drags merged with the 5th Drag Gds in 1922 I believe the individual regt buttons continued in use until the late 1920;s when the regimental squadrons of the new regt were finally amalgamated.

David

PS.... further on the group of "6" & "VI" buttons pictured by Tony. The Officers buttons with silver castle are only known with "VI", I've never seen a "6" example.

Also, looking at Tony's buttons, the flag appears to be missing from one of them, looks like it has broken off or even been cut off?

[3748 Hussar]

David , many thanks again

Attached the 5 DG

Regards

Tony c