Caption

This tiny 17^th century brass button found in excavations in Amsterdam and Historic Huguenot Street can be very telling of the history and culture of the Netherlands and early Dutch settlers.  This button most likely belonged to a man’s jacket or coat as the buttons in men’s jackets and coats in the 17^th century Dutch fashion were very small, numerous, decorative, and functional (“History of Buttons”).

Physical Description of the Object 

****I need to go back and fill in the blank measurements*****

This brass button measures about 1.2 cm or 12mm in diameter. The button front is rounded and juts slightly outward. The face of the button has a center basket weave/ braided thread/ checkerboard pattern design that takes up about ____ cm/ ____ mm of button. Around the basket weave pattern is a circular border that measures _____mm thick. Next, around the first border is another weave pattern, ______mm thick, going around the circumference of the button. After this weave pattern is another solid border measuring ___mm thick. The edge of this border is the end of the button, which is slightly worn away. This wear prevents the button from being a perfect circle. The back of the button is smooth and flat, except for a circular piece that juts out perpendicular of the button. This piece measures ___mm wide and ____mm thick. In the middle of this piece is a hole _____mm wide, meant for a needle and thread to pass through.

Provenance

The exact ownership of this button is unknown. The only concrete fact known about where this artifact came from is that this button was excavated in Historic Huguenot Street, New Paltz NY in the year 2009. The button was excavated by Professor Joe Diamond, an anthropology professor of SUNY New Paltz. Although there is not much information on the exact origins of the button and how it came to pass in New Paltz, a very similar, practically identical button was found in the excavations in Amsterdam, along with a few other 17^th century small brass buttons (“Knopen”).

Date(s) of Creation 

17^th Century/ First half of the 17^th Century (“Knopen”)

Narrative 

Time period of 17^th century in the Netherlands

The 17^th century proved to be a very successful explosion of overseas expansion for the Dutch. Also known as the Dutch Renaissance, this was when overseas commerce was making the Netherlands one of the most prosperous nation in Europe. At this time, the Dutch trading posts extended from Portuguese Brazil to the islands of the Caribbean, the “Wild Coast” of Guyana, and trading stations of West Africa (Bailyn 192).

The Netherlands was also a melting pot of people from all over Europe. By the 1600s, about a hundred thousand refugees flooded the coastal cities. Some refugees (from Flanders, Antwerp, Brabant, and Hainault) came to escape the harsh administration of the Catholic Church Spain. They were later joined by Jews, crypto-Jews, Polish Socinians, Czech Comenians, Swiss and Prussian Baptists, and English radical separatists (Bailyn 192).

Dutch East and West India Company (Leads to the discovery of the Hudson area and thus the colonization of New Netherland and New Amsterdam)

In 1602, the Dutch East India Company was founded. In 1609 it was sent out to locate a northern passage through the Far East, but landed in the Hudson area instead where trading posts were created and the New Netherland Company was created (1615). The company was given three years to monopolize the region’s Indian trade. After the charter expired, individual barter with Native Americans resumed. Moving on, the Netherland’s east India Company competed for wealth of the Moluccas, Malaya, Ceylon, and India. In the meantime, in 1621, the Dutch West India Company was created to strike aggressively against the Iberian powers of the Atlantic world. In 1630, the company took the northeastern Brazilian captaincies of Pernambuco, Itamaraca, and Paraiba from the Portuguese(Bailyn 195). The far eastern portion of Portuguese America named New Holland, but after two years, the area was retaken by Portugal. Thus “New Netherland” was created instead. On both sides of the Delaware River and on the lower shores of the lower Hudson, Dutch, Swedes, Finns, Walloons, Flemings, Frisians, Holsteiners, Danes, Germans, and French Huguenots settled in the isolated trading posts (Bailyn 191).

Textiles and Buttons in Colonial Trade

In colonial trade, textiles were always considered very important. However, wasn’t until the 1620s where the direct and regular trade of European textiles and furs was created, resulting in a rapid increase of the manufacturing and distribution of these goods (Blackburn 6). This rapid increase can be seen through the evidence of textile material from the Seneca Steele Site and Power House Site in western New York (1640-1655). Artifacts found in this area included 185 glass buttons, 38 brass buttons, a few pewter buttons, 18 textile fragments, and 17 bale seals. It is believed that most of the items were from the Dutch cities of Kampen, Leiden, and Amsterdam (Blackburn 6). The Marsh and Dann sites (1655-1675) also produced items including 35 textile fragments, 32 bale seals, 32 glass buttons, and other buttons made of brass and pewter. The button found in Huguenot Street can come from any one of these sites! The button can be aged back to the first half of the 17^th century because the Dutch material found later on in the time period (Seneca sites of Rochester Junction and Boughton Hill 1675- 1687) revealed relatively few buttons, only 11 compared to the 185 plus found for the 1640-1655 time period. This can be because European fashion started moving away wearing long rows of small brass or pewter buttons. The only buttons that were left for fashion were large disc shaped buttons on costumes (Blackburn 7). However, the use of glass, brass, and pewter buttons did not completely disappear. These buttons and other textiles were used by means of trade with the Native Americans. These buttons were often used as ornaments and fastenings for clothing by the Native Americans (Blackburn 7).

Costume/ Fashion Featuring Buttons

In the beginning of the 17^th century, the court and society tended to dress more high fashion, which had French influence. However, the regents preferred a more conservative but still rich costume. With the split of Catholicism and the Protestant religion in Spain, the fundamental principles for all the sects of the Protestant religion emphasized modesties and looked down on fashionable frivolities. Interestingly enough, the Netherlands costume at the time period was very similar to the old rigid Spanish fashion, except for the women’s caps (Jacques plate 14).

All the details in the Netherlands costumes were functional as well as loose and decorative. The appearance of dress moved towards natural proportions and the whole appearance, as opposed to lace frills from the knees and breeches that were wide as skirts. The most characteristic change the man’s costume was the hat. The hats represented elegance and humor and usually had a wide sweep of gar brim and feathers that were very distinctive of the time period (Jacques plate 14).

The picture on the left is a portrait of an Amsterdam ebony worker (1640) by Rembrandt  a Dutch painter (Rembrandt Herman Doomer). The portrait on the right is a painting of a standard bearer (1659) also by Rembrandt (Rembrandt The Standard Bearer). Both of these pictures depict the possibility of how the button may have been worn.

 

Works Cited

Bailyn, Bernard. The Barbarous Years: The Conflict of Civilizations 1600-1675. New York: Knopf, 2012. Print.

Blackburn, Roderic H. and Nancy A. Kelly. New Dutch World Studies: Dutch Arts and Culture in Colonial America, 1609-1776. Albany: Albany Inst. Of History and Art, 1987. Print.

“History of Buttons.” Antique Buttons.nl. Webring, n.d.  Web. 14 March 2013.

Jacques, Faith and Margaret Stavridi. The Hugh Evelyn History of Costume: 1500-1660. Boston: Plays Inc., 1969. Print

“Knopen.” De West-Frisiae 4.nl. n.p, n.d. Web. 13 March 2013.

Morse, H.K. Elizabethan Pageantry: A Pictorial Survey of Costume and its Commentators from c. 1560- 1620. New York: Benjamin Bloom, 1969. Print.

Rembrandt. Herman Doomer. 1640. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Metmuseum. Web. 13 March 2013.

Rembrandt. The Standard Bearer. 1640. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Metmuseum. Web. 13 March 2013.