Posted 9 years ago
Chefjuan
(1 item)
Hello all, I'm a treasure hunter and enjoy exploring old sites in New England with a metal detector. I have been exploring this old turn of the century schoolhouse and among other cool relics I found this button. I cannot for the life of me identify it and I'm hoping that someone out there in button land can help me with it. The back says "tres cercos" which I'm assuming is a brand. I'm wondering if it may be an odd fellows button?
Any info would be helpful! Thanks
very beautiful!!! love the art work!!!
Buttons that have makers' marks are usually easy to trace. (Also think your finger prints are now on file with some gestapo agency!)
Yeah, I have found other older buttons which I was able to trace, this button however eludes me. It may be just decorative but you would think that I doule did the stamp somewhere on the Internet. It may be an odd fellows decorative button for a ceremonial costume (they used three circles in a lot of their symbols) but I still can't find it.
That's really nice find! Can I make a post about it on my website https://detecthistory.com/ about metal detecting?
If you found this at the school site it could have been they had their own uniforms for the students to wear. Button may have come off a school uniform. Researching the school might shed light on the origin of the button.
I tried a translation of the words on the front. The results showed it is Greek Latin and stands for Crown Coat of Arms. Not sure that helps but I was curious so thought I would share it.
Probably few would know what I meant by Greek Latin. It goes back to the Roman Conquest of Greece. The vocabulary and spoken word have totally different meanings than polished modern Latin. No harm done, each of us use different means of research. I just went back a few thousand years.
Don't let the reverse N be a mystery. It dates between 250 - 100 BC . The designer wasn't dyslexic.
This site details the Button Company of the Feu family in Madrid and Barcelona, I think. My Spanish is only basic.
http://www.botonistica.es/botoneros/fabricantes.html
I thought I might add my thoughts. The Latin on the Button looks like a shortened form of :
6 itaque iam non sunt duo sed una caro quod ergo Deus coniunxit homo non separet ....
(the Vulgate Bible, Matthew 19:6).
But it’s a bit more involved than that.
The marriage context of the numismatic rarities mentioned are a reflection of the Marriage Feast at Cana. John 2 1-11. Those coins have depictions of Jesus and the married couple. I think Saint Augustine was responsible for the words in Matthew being linked to the Cana event in his Tractates. But that is a construct of the Catholic Church well after the events in Cana.
Note too that the button has ‘quos’ rather than ‘quod’. I believe the ‘quos’ gives a slightly different meaning ..... let those who God has joined together....
It’s more personal rather than ‘quod’.
The reversed N to me is just a mistake of the engraver who would have been creating the entire punch for the Button in reverse.
I’m wondering what the Button was for ???
They might be commercial items perhaps made for wedding garments.