A connoisseur’s collection
March 21, 2018
I recently visited a good friend in the US – a keen collector of British hunt buttons and the owner of a superb collection of silver sets. Whilst wishing to
I recently visited a good friend in the US – a keen collector of British hunt buttons and the owner of a superb collection of silver sets. Whilst wishing to
In amongst a mixed lot of hunt buttons I bought recently were a number of buttons marked as ‘?’ or with suggestions as to what they might be. Are they
Following on from my recent post on rare Irish buttons, I turn now to Wales and offer a few rarities for your information and (hopefully) interest and enjoyment. Many of
At Peterborough last year I fell into conversation about hand-made buttons with fellow collector Neville Hackett. I had heard of ‘rustic made’ buttons but had none in the collection. More
For my first post of 2018 I thought I would offer up a selection of rare buttons, all of which come from Ireland, and most of which are the only
Most of us will have come across a blackened button at some time, and may have referred to it as a ‘mourning button’. There has long been debate between collectors
The deeper down the rabbit hole of collecting one goes, the more intriguing the subject can become: variations, backmarks, silver presentation sets, buttons with errors, and more can become ‘side
One of the more well-known reference books to include hunt buttons is Gwen Squire’s ‘Buttons: A guide for collectors‘ – NB by general I mean other than our own fine
From the traditions of the Indian Princely States and earlier, the sporting pig-sticking of British India and ‘the Raj’, and hound driven hunting in Europe we have gained a wonderful
Do you know to which pack this button belongs? Do the oak leaves and acorns give a clue?
I thought I’d extend things slightly from just buttons for this post. One of the best, but lesser known, sources of historical information about hunts and hunting in England are
A hearty ‘Thanks’ to everyone that visited my display of hunt buttons at The Festival of Hunting; with an especial vote of gratitude to Peter and Helen, whom hosted my
With less than a week to go before The Festival of Hunting, we are faced with an interesting puzzle to try to solve before the day. Can anyone give a
I ended my previous contribution by touching on the subject of attribution and being sure not to limit ourselves by saying such-and-such is THE Blankshire button. When it comes to
Over the years there have been a number of buttons that have taxed the brains of many a collector. Some had us fooled for many years, until some digging around
One of the more remarkable items in the small hunting collection at the National Folk Museum of Wales is this tiny riding jacket worn by a lady member of the
From the fairly simple to the down right ingenious, creating a design or monogramme for your hunt button can result in a miniature work of art. Here are just a
What approach do you take to collecting hunt buttons? Some take the ‘got to have them all’ approach, which can end up a very expensive and life-long hobby. So, how
Here is our first request for help. Does anyone know for certain to which pack or family this button belongs? The initials P.T could be a surname or location/s. The
To start the ball rolling I thought I would feature three buttons that have a common theme. All three were especially commissioned by Masters during their term of office and
Collecting hunt buttons goes back a long way, and the tradition of hunt staff collecting a large and a small example from other packs that they visited, or with which
