Coldengham, New York
Store of Cadwallader Colden, Jr.
Buttons
Buttons were a very common purchase at the Colden Store. 250 years ago today, Frances Youmens bought coat and vest buttons while William Strickland bought just 'buttons.'
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| Horn Buttons. Image courtesy of www.wmboothdraper.com |
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This article is one in a series of a daily accountings of Colden Store transactions. Be sure you read the first installment for an introduction to the store. You should also read this article which appeared in the Journal of the Orange County Historical Society.
Buttons were essential to the clothing of the day. A coat could require 12-26 buttons and a vest 20 buttons.
In the prior six months, Colden had sold over 3000 buttons! They were typically sold by the dozen and included descriptors like vest buttons, shirt buttons, sleeve buttons, horn, brass, metal, felt, Philadelphry, small, and large.
Most of the buttons were likely imported due to recent mass production in England. However, Philadelphia appears to be a source of buttons from the descriptors. Indeed, Caspar Wistar had been making brass buttons in Philadelphia since 1750.
Buttons could be made from many materials including thread, seashell, wood, wax, bone, and horn. Button molds for making cloth buttons existed in this period, but none have been found so far in the DayBook.
The community around Coldengham made most of their own clothes based on the store sales. Hats, shoes, and aprons were sold at the store, but vests, breeches, dresses, and coats appear to have been custom manufactured by the community. The store provided them with the thousands of buttons required to make those items.
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