Buttons

These two buttons are made from cut steel and may originally have served as cuff links. Individual faceted steel studs are attached to a backplate through a series of carefully spaced holes.
The production of cut-steel ornaments appears to have first started in Woodstock near Oxford in the early 1600s. By the 1760s it had spread to other English cities, including London and Birmingham. Cut steel became popular on the Continent as well. It was not only used as a cheap substitute. The inventory made after the death of the French Empress Josephine in 1814 also included two suites of cut-steel jewellery.
Cut steel continued to flit in and out of fashion throughout the 19th century. It was produced in Paris in small quantities until the 1940s.