Hand made WWI hinged brass button stick

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c. 1915

Overview

Hand made World War One era hinged brass button stick. It features three solid lengths of brass, the bottom two which are soldered together.
The central piece has a series of five elongated circular cutouts with the open ends adjacent to the third length of brass. The soldier would slide the circular holes beneath the button, trapping the button's loop (shank) under the plate.
There are three flat circular metal fasteners which attach one end of the brass lengths to another piece at right angles below. The top piece is hinged and can be moved up and down to open and shut.
At the opposite end of the top piece, another brass length of the same width has been folded to size and can be moved to permit opening of the device or secure closing.
The whole tool is well engineered and heavy in construction, despite being hand made.

Historical information

During World War One, soldiers were required to maintain pristine uniforms, which included keeping all brass uniform buttons, cap badges, and belt components highly polished. However, liquid chemical polishes like Brasso could easily stain, discolour, or rot the wool or khaki fabric of the tunic if it touched the cloth.
Brass button sticks (also referred to as a button brasses or button cleaning guards) served as a protective physical shield between the metal hardware and the uniform fabric. With the fabric completely blanketed underneath the brass plate, the soldier could vigorously apply polish and buff the buttons clean without any risk of transferring residue onto the tunic.

This particular button stick has been hand made and could be considered trench art.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-119-RoW01005

Item type

Accessories

Collectibles

Ephemera

Metalwork

Objects

Personal Effects

Uniforms