e fourteenth
century they frequently appear on the garments of both sexes, but in
many instances they are drawn without button-holes, and are placed in
such situations as to suggest that at that time they were used more for
ornament than usefulness.

It was towards the close of the sixteenth century that button-making was
first considered a business, and that the manufacturers formed a
considerable body.

Button-making was originally a very tedious and expensive process. The
button consisted of one solid piece of metal; the ornaments on the face
of it were the work of an engraver. To obviate the expense connected
with such a method of production, the press, stamp, and engine for
turning the moulds were introduced. This improvement led the way for
other improvements, both with regard to the materials from which buttons
were afterwards made and also the process of manufacture. The plain gilt
button, which was extensively used in the early part of the present
century, was made from an alloy called plating metal, which contained a
larger proportion of copper and less zinc than ordinary brass. The
devices on the outer surface were produced by stamping the previously
cut out blanks or metal discs with steel dies, after which the necks
were soldered in. At the present time every possible kind of metal, from
iron to gold, whether pure or mixed; every conceivable woven fabric,
from canvas to the finest satin and velvet; every natural production
capable of being turned out or pressed, as wood, horn, hoof, pearl,
bone, ivory, jet, ivory nuts; every manufactured material of which the
same may be said, as caoutchouc, leather, papier mache, glass,
porcelain, etc., buttons are made in a great variety of shape; but at
the present time they may be classed under four heads: buttons with
shanks, buttons without shanks, buttons on rings or wire moulds, and
buttons covered with cloth or some other material.

In the process of metal button-making by means of fly presses and
punches, circular discs, called blanks, are cut out of sheets of metal.
This work is usually done by females, who, while seated at a bench,
manage to cut out as many as thirty blanks per minute, or twelve gross
in an hour. On leaving the press the edges of the blanks are very sharp.
When they have been smoothed and rounded, the surfaces are planished on
the face by being placed separately in a die, under a small stamp, and
causing them to receive a sharp blow from a po