of various degrees of concavity, sugar-loaves,
and many other shapes, are dropping by
thousands from the machines into the
troughs below. And here is the covering or
pressing machine again at work—here covering
the nut of the acorn with green satin,
and there casing the cup with green
Florentine; and finally fitting and fastening
them together, so that no ripening and loosening
touch of time shall, as in the case of the
natural acorn, cause them to drop apart.
This exquisite machinery was invented about
eleven years ago, and is now patented by the
Messrs. Elliott, in whose premises we are
becoming acquainted with it.

We have fastened upon the acorn button,
because it is the prettiest; and, just now,
before everybody's eyes, in shop, street, or
drawing-room: but the varieties of dress-
button are endless. Some carry a fringe;
and the fringes come from Coventry. To
ornament others, the best skill of Spitalfields
is put forth. In a corner of an up-stairs
room there is a pile of rich silks and other
fabrics, which seem to be out of place in a
button manufactory, till we observe that they
are woven expressly for the covering of
buttons. They have sprigs or circles, at regular
distances. One woman passes the piece under
a machine, which chalks out each sprig; and
the next machine stamps out the chalked bit.
This, again, is women's and children's work;
and we find, on inquiry, that of the three
or four hundred people employed on these
premises, nearly all are women and children.
We saw few men employed, except in the
silvering and burnishing departments.

The most interesting and beautiful kind of
button of all, however, depends upon the skill
of men employed elsewhere—the die-sinkers,
of whom we have already given some news.
There is a series of stamped buttons, gilt or
silvered, which one may go and see, as one
would so many pictures;—that sort of badge
called sporting buttons. Members of a hunt,
or of any sporting association, distinguish
themselves by wearing these pretty miniature
pictures; here, a covey of partridges, with
almost every feather indicated in the high
finish;—there, a hound clearing a hedge;—
now, a group of huntsman and pack;—and
again, a fishing-net meshing the prey; or the
listening stag or bounding fawn. In these
small specimens of art, the details are as
curious, the composition as skilful, the life of
the living as vivid, and the aspect of the
dead as faithful, as if the designer were busy
on a wine-cup for a king, instead of a button
for a sporting jacket. Here there must be a
dead ground; there a touch of burnish;
here a plain ground; there a plaided or
radiating one; but everywhere the most
perfect finish that talent and care can give.
There is surely something charming in seeing
the smallest things done so thoroughly, as if
to remind the careless, that whatever is worth
doing at all, is worth doing well. We no
longer wonder as we did, that the button
branch is one of the most advanced in the
business of the die-sinker and medallist.

Pearl buttons have their style of
" ornamentation" too; but the die-sinker and
professional designer have nothing to do with it.
There is something more in the ornamenting
of pearl buttons than the delicate work done
with the turning tools;—the circles, and
stars, and dots, and exquisite milled edges,
with which our common pearl buttons are
graced. At the manufactory we are shown
drawers full of patterns; and among those in
favour with working men are some with pearl
centres, on which are carved, with curious
skill, various devices;—a dog, or a bird, or
some such pretty thing. These designs are
notions of the workmen's own.

The pearl button manufacture is the
prettiest, after all;—the prettiest of that family
of production. Perhaps the charm is in the
material,—the broad shell, which we know
to have been, a while ago, at the bottom of
the Indian seas. The rainbow light, which
gleams from the surface, seems to show to us
the picture of where this shell once was, and
what was done about it. This is not from
the Gulf of Mexico—this shell. Many come
from thence; but this is of too good a quality
for those western seas. Nor is it from
Manilla, though the Manilla shells are very
fine. This comes from Singapore, and is of
the best quality. To get it, what toil and
pains, what hopes and fears, what
enterprises and calculations have been undertaken
and undergone! What boatsful of barbarians
went out, amidst the muttering and chanting
of charms, to the diving for the shells
for our handling! How gently were they
paddled over those deep clear seas, where the
moon shines with a golden light, and sends
her rays far down into the green depths
which the diver is about to intrude upon!
As the land-breeze came from stirring the
forest, and breathing over the rice-grounds,
to waft the boats out to sea, the divers
prepared for their plunge, each slinging his foot
on the heavy stone which was to carry him
down, nine fathoms deep, to where his prey
was reposing below. Then there was the
plunge, and the wrenching of the shells from
the rocks, and putting them into the pouch
at the waist; and the ascent, amidst a vast
pressure of water, causing the head to seethe
and roar, and the ears to ache, and the
imprisoned breath to convulse the frame; and
then there was the fear of sharks, and the
dread spectacle of wriggling and shooting
fishes, and who knows what other sights!
And then, the breath hastily snatched; and
the fearful plunge to be made again! And
then must have followed the sale to the
Singapore merchant; and the packing and
shipping to England; and the laying up in
London, to gather an enormous price—the
article being bought up by a few rich
merchants—and the journey to Birmingham,