Featured Little silver metal buttons - filigree? cannetille?

These were in a box of buttons I recently purchased. The thimble is there for size reference ... but just in case someone isn't familiar with the size of a thimble ... the buttons are roughly ½" or 1.3 cm in diameter. They're very delicate looking with tiers of tiny 'loops' of thin flat silver metal stacked up like a wedding cake ... topped with what looks like cannetille work.

They appear to be pretty old to me, but I could be wrong.

Familiar to anyone?

Thanks for looking!


please ignore the glitter that is stuck to the shank of the one above - bought like that ... I meant to shoot one that was 'glitter free'

 

I would think Victorian & European, from the days when you bought a button set separately & moved them from one garment to another. For a vest? I'm sure there must be some folks hooked on buttons here.

 

Wow! Those are pretty cool!
Looks like intensive work to make them.

 

My first reaction is Turkish silver; the Turks have been doing similar work for centuries. A real expert may pop up.

 

if those aren't hand made......i don't know what is !!!
Neato !

 

Very nice.

 

Beautiful buttons, quirky.
Those undecorated tube petals are not European or Ottoman, they would always decorate those with more filigree or engraving. I think these were made further East.
Just for comparison, European (Dutch) buttons:


Ottoman crown ring from Bulgaria:


Palestinian button panel, incorporating different Armenian and Arab Ottoman styles:

 

Thank you, Bronwen. I didn't know people did that. I mean, I knew my own grandmother cut buttons from worn out clothes to re-use (both the buttons and the cloth) ... but thought that was because she was frugal and sewed most of her own clothes.

I hope so!
I see what you did there ^^^^

 

Thanks! I did look at some Turkish silver buttons ... similar ... but I wasn't seeing this 'wedding cake' shape.

 

Thank you, AJ.
I was hoping you'd see this thread because I saw (online) some old buttons from the Netherlands that were the same general shape of mine (what I'm calling "wedding cake") ... but were much fancier looking. I hoped you would know if there was a Northern European connection or not.

So you say further east. I should look towards one of the Asian countries, then? Do you think these are currently made buttons?

 

Yes, always very fancy, and precise detailing. That would go for most places in Europe. Here are buttons from Sardinia, different models, but all very European:


Your buttons are gorgeous, but have a more 'ethnographic' feel.
I think they are antique, made somewhere in the southern part of mainland Asia. I'd start looking from India to Thailand.
Thailand usually has very intricate filigree, but there are also tribal people like the Hill Tribes, who have simpler metalwork. Their traditional clothing doesn't have buttons, but these could have been made for trade.
These buttons are very unusual, and may have been commissioned by a European lady who lived in Asia, so chance is you'll never find out where they're from.

 

Thanks again, AJ ... I'll search those areas.

 

Lady fingers cake?

 

Preferable to diaper cake

 

~
What a sh***y deal to get one of those!

 

Quirky....that's exactly what I thought when I first saw the button upright....Wedding Cake!!!! VERY neat!!!!!

 

They turn up sometimes boxed, like men's dress studs or any other fine jewelry.