What is my button made from?
This Wikipedia page lists the many materials that have been used
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_raw_materials_used_in_button-making
but Hammond Turner didn’t use all of them.
If your button is metal and bears traces of what looks like gold, it is possibly one of the electro-plated buttons that were made by my ancestors’ company from the early 1840s. Having said that, the button’s body is usually made of a base metal or an alloy, in other words not silver or gold. I have never seen examples of buttons made of these valuable metals and they would always have been hallmarked, even if that was just 925 (or whatever) for silver. There was a lot of waste metal involved in making a button so using base metals is the only affordable way to make them en masse.
The ‘base’ metal used was sometimes brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. Pewter was used because it is malleable but be warned: ‘old’ pewter alloy contains tin and as much as 40% lead. Modern pewter alloys do not contain lead: instead, they consist of tin (85–99%), antimony (approximately 5–10%), copper (2%), bismuth, and sometimes silver. Take care not to breathe in any dust coming from a button you think may be old pewter, and wash your hands after handling it.
Hammond Turner did not make plastic buttons and if they made them from wood, horn, vegetable ivory or mother of pearl they do not appear to have been given a backmark. Their fabric-covered buttons have metal backs and those do bear their name.
A two-part button usually has a convex front face and a flat back. Between these two layers is a wad of material which may or may not merit investigation: it could harbour unwelcome surprises, so take care! It may be compressed horn waste or paper or a piece of shaped wood. Two-piece buttons with convex front are not solid as they would be too heavy.
If you can’t find what you are looking for please contact me.