Suite of buttons, France, 1760-1790 (T.45-2021)

This is a suite of buttons, most probably intended for a man's coat, which have never been used. Their shanks are pricked through a thick piece of paper and are tied to one another on the back with a piece of string.

They are extremely rare survivals of luxurious French eighteenth-century sets of buttons, still mounted on cardboard. They therefore provide evidence of how such sets were put together for sale, and reveal the roots of a practice that continues into the twenty-first century. Magnificent buttons were an important form of embellishment in the eighteenth century. They increased in size, number, variety and impact in Europe in accordance with changing French fashions, which were characterised before the French Revolution by a taste for conspicuous luxuries.

Buttons made in luxury materials, such as gold, silver, precious jewels, and ivory added to a repertoire that already included fabric-covered, embroidered and passementerie buttons. The most lavish and extravagant examples were worn by men, rather than women. Throughtout the century, buttons tended to be made in sets of from five to thirty-five. Buttons were detached from the garment as soon as it was worn out and were either reused for another garment or recycled for their precious materials.

Furthermore, it is possible that larger sets were originally divided when left as bequests to family members. As a result the finest eighteenth-century buttons usually survive as separate objects. Only a few complete sets remain intact. Most often only one or a few buttons from a set survive, sometimes in different collections.