Image 1 An amazing find! Dug up by Stan Purcell while he was metal detecting in the Creswick Regional Park in Victoria, Australia. Having found this website, Stan generously donated his find to my collection: it has been a bit flattened but it shows a fox apparently lying down. Made by Hammond Turner & Sons, between roughly 1820 and 1850, in Birmingham, England. Did a gentleman emigrating to Australia take a coat with this button on it with him? Did the button continue to be used long after it was made? Button 095 |
Image 2 The reverse of Stan’s find Amazingly, there is still some thread on the shank of this button. How did it some to be in Australia? Did someone’s trousers fall down when they lost it?! It is a very fine sporting button, probably part of a set, and I don’t have any others made in a similar pattern. Stan found it near where the Cotty Creek and the Sawpit Creek meet the Slaty Creek. Button 095 |
Image 3 Hammond Turner & Sons Fox and bird A beautiful example of very finely-detailed work, with a broken shank Button 087 |
Image 4 Huntsman with horse and dead fox Hammond Turner & Sons Extra Quality Button 101 |
Image 5 Huntsman on horseback jumping a hedge Hammond Turner & Sons Extra Quality Button 102 |
Image 6 Pair of hounds ‘at work’ Hammond Turner & Sons Extra Quality Button 103 There was a fourth button in this set whose price went too high for me: it depicts two riders, who appear to be wearing top hats whilst their horses walk side by side |
Image 7 Hammond Turner & Sons Extra Quality A snarling hunting dog with a forest background Button 098 Compare with image 10 (button 110), below |
Image 8 Hammond Turner & Sons Extra Quality Two piece Female deer Button 061 Compare with button 109, below, and gallery [to follow], image [to follow] (button 62) |
Image 9 Hammond Turner and Sons Two piece Probably a male deer Button 064 Compare with sporting gallery 3, image 9 (button 083) |
Image 10 Hammond Turner & Sons *Extra Quality*The same button as image 7, a snarling hunting dog with a forest background Button 110 Compare with button 98, image 7, above |
Image 11 Hammond Turner & Sons ‘A good catch’ (that depends on your point of view, surely?) Same button as Sporting gallery 1, image 8 BBB Plate 289 no 12 Button 108 Compare with image 4 (button [to follow]) sporting gallery 2 and image 8 (button 030) sporting gallery 1 |
Image 12 Hammond Turner & Sons, Extra Quality The same button as image 8, a female deer Button 109 Compare with button 61, above, and gallery [to follow], image [to follow] (button 62) |
Image 13 Hammond Turner & Sons Two piece Two dogs (?greyhounds) chase a hare or rabbit: one dog appears to have jumped the fence that runs across the button Button 156 |
Image 14 Hammond Turner & Sons Two piece (?) in very clean, shiny condition Three horses, one running with all four feet off the ground, a horse’s head (with a crack across the nose) and one rather fat, dumpy-looking horse/pony standing still Button 159 |