To keep our members and friends connected during this pandemic year, our publicity chair Janice Canard had launched a “Staying in Touch Program”. The first educational program, called “Livery Buttons” was given by Lewis Lombardi on Sept 9th. Lewis’ program took us through a history of heraldry. From two parts of his presentation we learned the meaning of different symbols on coat of arms, enjoyed the fascinating story of the Firmin pattern books of uniform buttons, understood the interesting designs of Lozenges, learned the story of Maharaja Duleep Singh and the start of Crests buttons, and gained a much better understanding on the classification of livery buttons in the NBS Blue Book. TSBS members would like to express our appreciation to Lewis for sharing his time and knowledge with us.
Lewis provided a list of books for people would like to learn more about Livery buttons. A Facebook group with experts on livery buttons is also very active to answer any questions.
Stay in tuned for our next “Staying in Touch Program” coming soon.
Book references:
Livery Buttons: Identification, Classification and Heraldry, by Tom Skovronsky
Fairbairn’s Book of Crests of the families of Great Britain and Ireland, by James Fairbairn
Armorial Families: A directory of gentlemen of Coat-Armour, by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies
A Complete Guide to Heraldry, by Arthur Charles Fox-Davies
Livery Buttons – The Pitt Collection, by Gwen Squire
Elvin’s Dictionary of Heraldry, by Charles Norton Elvin
Facebook:
Livery buttons experts on Facebook group. Led by Sebastian de Valcourt
