The Red Kaganate

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Buttons Collection of materials Following text is translated and adapted from http://www.alices-chest.narod.ru. Buttons were made from wood, leather, metal, bone, glass, mother of pearl. Wood and leather buttons were of a short cylindrical shape and were fastened with leather loops. They were chiefly worn on outer clothing. Tin, bronze, silver, and gold buttons showed substantially more variety -- egg-shaped, almond-shaped, pear-shaped, "half-sphere", concave... They differ in size from a pea to an egg and could be decorated in different ways, including engraving, chern, simple chasing... A garment may have from eleven to fifteen, or even more buttons. Fancy dress would use siver or gold buttons, elaborately enameled buttons, or buttons of precious stone. A special deocrative type of buttons were used to fasten mantels or separate colars.   Cuman grave at Jaszdozsa - Artifacts as they were layed out. Image courtesy of Justin Dragosani, also published at his site: http://www.kipchak.com From Andras Paloczi-Horvath, Pechenegs, Cumans, Iasians: Steppe People in Medieval Hungary. Budapest: Corvina/Kultura, 1989, 62. Collection of buttons - A substantial set of Russo-Turkic buttons from http://www.alices-chest.narod.ru. Detail photos follow. The measure shown in some of the photos is in milimeters. Various decorated buttons. Concave buttons.       Plain buttons. Circa IX - XI cent. Kaluzh region.     Buttons with simple line decoration. Buttons with circular decoration. Kaluzh region. "Half-sphere" buttons. XII cent. Kaluzh region. Buttons with traces of enamel. No earlier than XIII cent. Kaluzh region. XVII cent. Russia. Silver, enamel, engraving.