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Online Button Museum

  • Home
  • Button Galleries
    • Button Galleries
    • Backmarks – Hammond Turner (etc) and others
    • Dandy and Dress Buttons 1
    • Dandy and Dress Buttons 2
    • Livery Buttons 1
    • Military Buttons
    • Naval Buttons
    • Sporting Buttons 1
    • Sporting Buttons 2
    • Sporting Buttons 3
    • Sporting Buttons 4
    • Uniform Buttons 1
    • Uniform Buttons 2
  • History
    • History
    • Hammond Turner timeline
    • Trade directories
    • Native American visit
    • The Penny Magazine Supplement on Birmingham
    • Harriet Martineau for Charles Dickens
    • The Birmingham Button Trade parts 1 – 10
    • Employment of children in the button trade, HT&Sons, 1833, 1841 & 1864
    • Children working in the button trade – 1841
    • Children working in the button trade – 1864
    • West’s patent buttons
  • Wills
    • Wills
    • William Kempson 1768
    • Bonham Hammond 1808
    • Charles Glover 1819
    • Mary Greenhill Hammond 1822
    • John Dickinson 1822
    • Samuel Hammond 1825
    • William Elliot 1831
    • John Turner 1841
    • Samuel Hammond Turner 1841
    • Rebecca Dickinson 1845
    • John Chatwin 1848
    • William Hammond Turner 1851
    • William Brunton 1851
    • George Bragg 1852
    • George Davey Bragg 1900
  • People
    • People
    • Samuel Hammond Turner
    • John Pemberton Turner
    • Locating Birmingham Button Makers
    • Repeal Button
  • Contact Us

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Online Button Museum

Contact Us

Hammond-Turner.com

Button Makers

See our collection of Dandy & Dress, Livery, Military, Naval, Sporting and Uniform buttons.

VISIT US TODAY

Hammond Turner & Sons

Snowhill, Birmingham

100+ buttons on display

Would you like help identifying a found button?

Contact us today

Hammond Turner & sons

button museum

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Repeal Button

SIR – I have lately been at Dublin, and in conversation with another button-maker I made some remarks on Mr O’Connell’s Repeal button, which he sells for threepence, which every Repealer, on entering his name as such, or signifying his intention of being a Repealer, pays to Mr O’Connell.

James Turner Street

James Turner Street in Winson Green was named after my great great uncle, a member of the button-making dynasty.

Hunting Button Found

Trevor Dixon found this button near the Murray river on the border between New South Wales and Victoria. On the same site he also found some coins and a needle holder of about the same age.

Moments in Time

A Very Brief History of Hammond Turner

1809

About the same time (1809) the first four-hole buttons were made by John Banks, for Hammond, Turner and Co.

1830

In proceeding up Snow-hill, on the left is the highly respectable and extensive establishment of Messrs. Hammond, Turner and Son, button manufacturers

1847

List of registrations effected under the act for protecting new and original designs for articles of utility. William Hammond Turner, James Turner, and Henry Turner, of Manchester, button manufacturers, for a hook and eye

1890

Hallmark first registered with Birmingham Assay Office by Mrs. Anne Turner and William Frederick Spittle trading as Hammond Turner and Sons, General buttonmakers, 100 Snow Hill, Birmingham and 89 Hamstead Road, Handsworth, Birmingham

About Us

Button Makers of Birmingham

This web site has been created by Lesley Close as an on-line museum displaying some of the buttons and other artifacts manufactured by Hammond Turner & Sons (and related companies), button makers of Birmingham (and Manchester), England.

Lesley's interest in buttons started when she saw the words 'button maker' in the 'father's occupation' column of her maternal great grandmother's marriage certificate. After rather too many 'ag labs', vicars and sailors, here was a wonderful change of occupation. She thought she might find a picture of a button: instead, she found a picture of the one-time owner of the business and over 200 different buttons made by the company.

Browse through our Button Galleries and marvel at the assorted buttons produced in Birmingham and Manchester by Hammond Turner and Sons.

Use our free button identification service to help with any Hammond Turner buttons you have found. We'll do our best to tell you more about your button

Take a few moments to read famous author Charles Dickens' fascinating and detailed account of button making in Birmingham, written in the early 1850s.

The history pages reveal the lives of children working in Victorian factories. It is dreadful to read about boys and girls as young as 9 working 12 hours a day, 5 (or more) days a week.

Our guide to the locations of Birmingham’s button makers uses facts from Samuel Sketchley and Orion Adams’s 1770 directory and maps them onto Richard Davies’s 1841 map.

Native American indians from the Ojibbeway and Ioway tribes were shown around the premises of Hammond Turner and Sons in the mid-1800s.

REASONS TO VISIT HAMMOND TURNER.COM

IT'S THE BEST ONLINE BUTTON MUSEUM EVER!

Not a button #1

This is a non-button item made by Hammond Turner & Sons

Not a button #2

Another non-button item from Hammond Turner & Sons

Not a button #3

Yet another non-button from Hammonnd Turner & Sons

Interesting Buttons

Sample buttons from our online collection

Hammond Turner Dickinson

  • Royal Naval Captain
  • One piece
  • (Commander, Lieutenant, Midshipman, Volunteer)
  • From 1-1-1825 to 18-12-1827

Hammond Turner and Son

  • Crane on wreath
  • One piece
  • Livery button

Hammond Turner and Bates

  • Civil War
  • South Carolina
  • ANTMIS OPIBUSQUE PARATI

Button News

Latest Metal Detecting Finds

Button finds 2

Button finds 5

Button finds 1

Button finds 4

Button finds 6

Button finds 3

Employment of children in the button trade

Child labour reports

Kate

age 14

  • Kate Buckley, age 14.—Draw through at a press. Sometimes away from work if I get a pinch. Squedged a piece right out once and couldn’t work for three weeks. Cannot count or read, but can tell the letters.
  • Commission on Child Labour 1864
  • Premises of Hammond Turner & Sons
Read more

Ellen

age 12

  • Ellen Hodgson, age 12.—Am “drawing through” at a press, and have done so for a year, and was here for four years before. Have “squedged” my thumb and got a black nail, and also, when I first began, my finger. There is a bump at the end now...
  • Commission on Child Labour 1864
  • Premises of Hammond Turner & Sons
Read more

Amelia

age 9

  • Amelia Edwards, age 9.—Cannot read much. Don’t know “m.” Was never at week-day school. At chapel they tell us about Jesus and God, but I don’t know what. He loves us, and lives up in heaven. Have not heard of the Garden of Eden.
  • Commission on Child Labour 1864
  • Premises of Hammond Turner & Sons
Read more

Favourite Buttons

Lesley's Favourite Buttons

Side-lever engine button

Side-lever engine on button made for the British and North American Royal Mail company. This is a … more about Side-lever engine button

Elliott’s Patent Button

This image, from Dandy gallery 2, is of fabric-covered button with the backmark Hammond Turner & … more about Elliott’s Patent Button

Another favourite button

Another favourite goes here. … more about Another favourite button

Find out more about the history of Hammond Turner & Sons

The 1781 Bailey's Northern Directory lists Samuel Hammond, button maker, at 89 Snow Hill and the 1788 entry in the Birmingham District Traders Guide and Residents Directory reads 'Hammond & Co., Snowhill'..
  • History
  • Wills

Hammond Turner and Sons

People connected with the button trade

Samuel Hammond Turner (1802-1841) was a button maker in Snowhill, Birmingham. Charles Dickens, the famous author, published an extensive article about the button trade in the April 1852 issue of his weekly journal Household Words.
Samuel Hammond Turner
Button maker
Another
Button maker
Another
Button maker
Charles Dickens
Author

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ABOUT OUR MUSEUM

This web site has been created by Lesley Close as an on-line museum displaying some of the buttons and other artifacts manufactured by Hammond Turner & Sons (and related companies), button makers of Birmingham (and Manchester), England.

GET IN TOUCH

 enquiries@hammond-turner.com

 www.hammond-turner.com

WHAT WE DON’T DO

The button-making company Hammond Turner no longer exists – we do not make buttons!

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