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One Book, One Button, Two Bargains
One Book
There are literally hundreds of books written on various military
collectible subjects. They run the gamut from poorly conceived
tracts, to in depth studies worthy of the finest library. Books
relating to dug military items
are fewer in number and the majority of those deal with excavated Civil
War artifacts. To the collector of Revolutionary War artifacts and
particularly buttons, the standard reference guides have been Alphaeus
Albert's "Record of American Uniform and Historical Buttons"
and Calver & Bolton's "History Written With Pick and
Shovel". These books were excellent works for their time but
both failed to provide comprehensive coverage of all known Revolutionary
War buttons.
Earlier this year, the landscape changed dramatically with the long
awaited release of "Military Buttons of the American
Revolution" by Don Troiani. This book despite a few minor
shortcomings has immediately become the standard reference work for
collectors of Revolutionary War buttons and certainly is a "must
have" title for anyone interested in artifacts from this period.
Mr. Troiani is probably best known for his fine historical artwork which
graces public and private collections around the world. However
his new book is not an art catalogue, it is a serious dissertation on a
long neglected subject. Mr. Troiani is an advanced collector and student of early
American Military items and has had a passion for Revolutionary War
buttons and insignia for many years. An avid digger himself, he
has tremendous respect for excavated artifacts and the information they
can provide about the armies of the past. Mr. Troiani used items
from his own personal collection, as well as many pieces from other
collections public and private. The result is a rather
comprehensive and fine body of work.
With research assistance from such notable experts as Rene Chartrand and
James Kochan, the book provides some interesting history behind many of
these buttons. The ever present Mike O'Donnell did most of the
excellent photography along with Michael O. Smith and Larry Dunnagan.
Editing was performed by the very knowledgeable military historian,
Robert McDonald.
The format of the book is easy to follow with sections dealing with
British/Loyalist buttons, American buttons and French buttons, included
are Army, Navy and Marine buttons. Hessian buttons are added in
with the
British/Loyalist section but since there are no known marked examples,
they are treated basically as a side note. Numerous different
variations are illustrated, measured and described, making this a real
studious and
thorough attempt to define "what is out there"
for the collector, historian and archaeologist. Also pictured are
a few post-Revolution buttons to help distinguish "good"
examples from "bad". Brief regimental histories are included where applicable, giving some insight into the units that wore
these buttons. Also a very nice touch was the inclusion of some
period paintings that show soldiers wearing some of the buttons
mentioned in the text. Needless to say, there are many buttons in
this book that have never been seen by the public before and the array
of examples is stunning. Figure 2. Shows typical Book Illustrations.
There are a few minor errors in the book which is to be expected in a
work of this size and scope. I noted one or two mistakes in
descriptions and a couple of dates were incorrect but these are
basically inconsequential and don't take away from the importance and usefulness of this study.
The biggest drawbacks for some people might be the absence of any rarity
or price guides. In my opinion, a price guide would have been
totally inappropriate for a work of this type. This is a serious
study of Revolutionary War buttons and including prices would serve no
purpose except to make the book immediately out of date. There
could be an argument for including a rarity scale but even that leads to
tremendous problems. Firstly, there are no really common
Revolutionary War buttons. Secondly, a button that is unique
today, might not be tomorrow. The current inaccuracy of Albert's
rarity scale is fitting testament to why these types of inclusions can
cause problems for an author. Perhaps Mr. Troiani or someone else
will someday tackle the job of doing a rarity/price guide for
Revolutionary War buttons but this book was not the place to do it.
"Military Buttons of the American Revolution" by Don Troiani,
is hardback, 183 pages, with black and white photos and ample
informative text. It is published by Thomas Publications,
Gettysburg, Pa. And has a suggested retail price of $39.95.
It is available from various book and military dealers including the
One Button
After studying Don Troiani's new book on Revolutionary War buttons, I
noticed that a few early British Navy buttons bore a rendition of the
"Tudor Rose" and nothing else. These are buttons that
would be very easy to dismiss as "flower buttons" if you
didn't know their significance. Before I read this book, I would
not have thought that these buttons were military in origin. After
gaining some insight, I looked through my dug
Revolutionary War era
flower buttons but to no avail, none of them were British
Navy. Figure 3. Page of British Navy "Tudor
Rose" Buttons Twice a year there is a button show a few miles
from my home. The show is very small but I always seem to find
something nice and the button collectors are really friendly which makes
for a pleasant time. Basically I am a pretty lazy guy and usually
only look through the military and uniform buttons. I figure I am
not really interested in buying other types so why spend time looking
through them.
But this year was different. Armed with the knowledge freshly
gleaned from Don Troiani's book, I decided to look through some of
the flower buttons at the show. Honestly though, I still kind of
felt I was wasting my time but boy was I wrong. After spending
about 15 minutes of looking at cards full of every type of flower button
imaginable, I picked up one card and almost gasped for breath.
Staring back at me was a nice non-dug example of a Tudor Rose button,
exactly as I remembered it looking in the book. I mumbled to
myself as I undid the wire tie holding the button to the card
"please don't have a backmark....please don't have a backmark".
As I flipped the button over I was certainly pleased.....no backmark and
the construction was totally consistent with numerous other
Revolutionary War era brass flat buttons I had dug over the years.
I bought the button and showed it to my friend and digging partner Jim
Dews who concurred that it was a "good" button and
congratulated me on a "nice buy". The button is a one
piece brass button of the style worn by British Navy Lieutenants from
. All in all a good day for Revolutionary War button
hunting, even if I didn't dig one. Now if I could only find one of
those unknown Virginia regimental buttons.
Figures 4 a & b show British Lieutenants button (front /
back)
Two Bargains
I spend a lot of money on reference books for collecting and my
business. I consider these books an investment. Some books
are good values, others...well others are not so good. I had been
looking forward to
"Military Buttons of the American Revolution" for well over a
year. After seeing a pre-publication copy, I knew it was a winner.
I had figured that the book would be priced at $50 or more and I would
have been willing to pay that money to get a copy for my library.
When I purchased mine and saw the price I was really surprised.
$39.95 for a hardcover military collectible book, loaded with photos and
information is certainly very reasonable and far less than many other
books of lesser quality. For all the new information in this book,
it is definitely a bargain. For me, it was even more so, since
because of that book, I bought a nice button at a super price, that I
ordinarily would have passed by.
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