Set of buttons "Buffon-mania"
Applied Arts
Inventory number
2020.11.26.2ah.AA.TX.C1765.FR
Description
Set of eight Buffon mania dress buttons, with flat metal bases and domed glasses with bone or watercolor ivory bases depicting a seabed decorated with dried herbs and small insects and shells.
The buttons called à la Buffon are probably among the rarest today. They were made in Paris during the last half of the 18th century, following the publication by Georges-Louis LECLERC, Comte de Buffon, of his book on natural history. The book met with an enormous success and in 1760, the buttonmakers began to bring out these very attractive underglas buttons, on which domed glass covered tiny insects, dried herbs and even tiny chips of stones. Such buttons were sometimes also called habitat buttons.
Materials
Brass
Steel
Glass
Ivory
Shells
Stones
Plants
Origin
circa 1765
Paris, France
Dimensions
Width : 1.5 cm
Length : 3.5 cm
Height : 3.5 cm