Button thumbnail 1
Button thumbnail 2
Not on display

Button

1789-1790 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This is one button of a set of eighteen (nos. T.39 to 39Q-1948).
At this period sets of men's suit buttons were often topical in design. These are set with satin printed with the likeness and names of persons politically prominent in the early stages of the French Revolution. Some of them are: the advocate Louis-Ferdinand Bonnet (1760-1839), member of the States General and a leader of the anti-royalist party Le Comte Charles Malo François de Lameth (1757-1832), writer, orator and political reformer Dominique-Joseph Garat le jeune (1749-1833), orator and constitutional reformer Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, Comte Mirabeau (1749-91), Director-General of finance to Louis XVI, Charles-Frederick Necker (1726-1804), President of the Constituent Assembly Jacques-Guillaume Thouret (1746-94).

Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Gilt, glass and printed silk satin button. Contained in a hexagonal glazed frame.
Brief description
Silk satin, copperplate-printed portrait of a political figure from the French Revolution; France, about 1790
Physical description
This is one button of a set of eighteen (nos. T.39 to 39Q-1948).
At this period sets of men's suit buttons were often topical in design. These are set with satin printed with the likeness and names of persons politically prominent in the early stages of the French Revolution. Some of them are: the advocate Louis-Ferdinand Bonnet (1760-1839), member of the States General and a leader of the anti-royalist party Le Comte Charles Malo François de Lameth (1757-1832), writer, orator and political reformer Dominique-Joseph Garat le jeune (1749-1833), orator and constitutional reformer Honoré-Gabriel Riqueti, Comte Mirabeau (1749-91), Director-General of finance to Louis XVI, Charles-Frederick Necker (1726-1804), President of the Constituent Assembly Jacques-Guillaume Thouret (1746-94).

Dimensions
  • Diameter: 1.5in (Taken from acquisition record.)
  • Height: 13mm (Measured by Conservation 2012)
  • Diameter: 38.2mm (Measured by Conservation 2012)
Credit line
Given by C. W. Dyson Perrins
Object history
The subject of this button is a politicial figure from the French Revolution.
Subject depicted
Bibliographic reference
Silk: Fibre, Fabric and Fashion, edited by Lesley Ellis Miller and Ana Cabrera Lafuente with Claire Allen-Johnstone, Thames and Hudson Ltd. in association with the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom, 2021, p. 340
Collection
Accession number
T.39Q-1948

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Record createdMay 20, 2009
Record URL
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