Images(2)

1st Massachusetts Regt. Officer's Button

Dateca. 1781

OriginAmerica or Europe

MediumSilver alloy, bone, resin, and catgut (est)

DimensionsDiam: 24 mm

Credit LineAcquisition funded by The Antique Collectors' Guild

Object number2006-136

DescriptionHollow repoussé button with a die-stamped face bearing the numeral "I" below a ribbon inscribed "MASS" and above a double sprig of flowers. The face is crimpled around a turned bone back pierced with four holes and strung with catgut for attaching to the uniform. An unknown past-like substance fills the interior of the button.
Label TextThough the Revolutionary War uniform of Lt. Col. Elijah Vose of the 1st Massachusetts Regiment has not survived, its buttons were saved. Vose commanded a battalion of Light Infantry in Virginia and was present at the siege and surrender of Yorktown in October 1781.
ProvenanceFrom the coat of Lt. Col. Elijah Vose, 1st Mass. Regt., ex. collection of Bill Guthman