History of Hunting Buttons

A defining characteristic of any Double D Ranch piece has to be the detail.

Detail, detail, detail.

I love meticulously looking at history and anything vintage for new embellishment or design ideas. This season, I zeroed in on vintage hunting buttons as trim for our "Wild Frontier" group.

Here is a little background into hunting buttons:

. Sporting buttons were first worn on the jackets of hunting gentlemen riding with hounds around the 1830s/40s. By the turn of the century, hunt or stag buttons became more common among all sporting enthusiasts. Railways and roads divided land up allowing an environment for which landowners could form Fox Hunt Clubs. The actual hunt lasted only a few hours, but the festivities were what people flocked for.

These hunting clubs, for the most part, would have sort of "coat of arms" buttons on their rider's jackets. Wild boars, foxes, hounds, horses, fish, rabbits, and of course, stags identified the club to which one belonged.

. . I've fallen in love with Downton Abbey and their fox hunt scenes are the ideal illustration of how big of a role fashion played in these events during the Edwardian Era. Fox hunts became de rigueur at the end of the 19th-century and were considered a leisurely pursuit suited to the upper class.

Jacqueline Kennedy. Equestrian outfit in the 1970s. .

. . . We located these vintage German buttons on eBay and recreated them for this fall's Call of the Wild Collection.  We wanted to make sure we had all of the details just right.

So whether it be a simple button, a vintage graphic, or a specific blanket weave construction, - every detail is important to us at Double D Ranch and we hope it is for you too.