MADE-TO-ORDER, PRE-ORDER. IF IN STOCK, IT WILL SHIP OUT PROMPTLY, BUT IF NOT, WE WILL SHIP ONCE IT'S MADE IN AN ESTIMATED TWO WEEKS.

The most notable button in this design features a detailed profile of a Renaissance man rendered in emaux peints enamel on a patterned brass background. With the emaux peints method, the enamel is painted on the button and then fired on high heat. Several paintings and firings were required to create intricate designs like this one.

We have a large version of this button on display in our St. Francisville button museum. We have only come across the more petite version a few times in our three decades of button hunting. So, we were over the moon when we found four of these scarce and valuable buttons on a recent trip.

The enamel button holds a medium-sized brass and cut steel antique openwork button. Cut steel buttons were first manufactured in the 1720s and quickly rose in popularity as economical imitations of the diamond and marcasite buttons fashionable in the royal court. We lovingly refer to them as “button bling.” 

We’ve named this necklace after Cosimo de Medici, the first of the Medici dynasty art patrons to wield power in Renaissance Florence. 

In this piece:

• French enamel button featuring the head of a Renaissance man rendered in emaux peints, with cut steel border, circa 1880-1890
• Antique brass and cut steel openwork button, circa 1880-1890
• Brass-plated setting cast today in the USA
• Hand-wrapped chalcedony beads in blush
• Antiqued brass chain
• Length is 22” with a 4” extender