Trouser and Batchelor/Bachelor buttons

Trouser buttons turn up regularly during metal detecting and also during clean outs! They are a lovely link with the past, but rarely valuable. (The exception to this would be if a rare uniform button turned up.) Here are some examples.

These included ‘Excelsior’, ‘Made in England’ and ‘Suspender’ and ‘Defence Department’. It is possible they were all made in England. Similar to the ‘Defence Department’ button are ‘Commonwealth’ buttons, also marked with a King’s Crown. I cannot say whether any of these were made in Australia, but it is possible.

See also

http://www.austbuttonhistory.com/branded-buttons/

Bachelor/Batchelor Buttons

Do I refer to biscuits, flowers or fasteners? Perhaps a race horse or a comedy?

The Farmer and Settler (Sydney), 20th March 1914 page 8.

Libraries Tasmania image #AB7/13/1/4955. 1955 Craspedia sp. (Batchelors buttons)

Examiner (Launceston), 11th June 1906 page 5.

The Leonora Miner (WA), 2nd August 1913 page 3.

‘The Batchelor’ and ‘Bull Dog Regd.’

Batchelor Buttons were a name for no-sew clothing fasteners (of course a batchelor doesn’t have a wife to sew normal buttons on). In the examples above, the small end of the stud is pushed through the cloth, then the disk pushed (or hammered) down over this. The prongs around the hole in the disk then grip the shaft of the stud firmly. There are variations in their design, and are still available today. In Australian newspapers they were advertised from 1898 until 1935. “S & B” drapers in Townsville were offering a free card of Batchelor Buttons to every male purchaser!

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