GUEST: My mother was given a jar of buttons, and after my dad passed in 1996, she started looking through them and came up with this one, and she did a little bit of research and gave it to me. It's a commemorative button that was made for George Washington's inauguration in 1789. As I understand it, it's 20 millimeters wide, it's got laurel wreaths and a star at the bottom, and it says, "Long live the president," and that's about all I know.
APPRAISER: Okay, all righty, well, you hit it pretty accurately. It is a laurel wreath star inauguration shank button. It does have on the back of it a shank that would be sewn as a button would be onto the lapel of a George Washington supporter. What I think's really interesting is just the fact that back then, it was "Long live the king," and here they use the same terminology, "Long live the president." It's a copper button. This is a 1789, done just before George Washington's first inauguration, and it's one of the earliest examples of what a political button would be. Obviously they made them up right through history, right up until today's modern days where they have pin-back buttons. In terms of trying to figure out a value on something like this, we always try to research what things like that similarly have sold for. The size is much scarcer than the smaller size buttons from what I was able to determine. The condition is really terrific. You can really still see the shine about it, the patina on it. Comparable auction records vary, but it seems to be the smaller sizes go for less money, the larger sizes do bring more money. I would say, at auction, I would probably put an estimate somewhere between $5,000 and $7,000.
GUEST: Wow. I had no idea, thank you very much. That's wonderful.
