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On display

This item is on display at Melbourne Museum

Button - Victorian Volunteers, Brass, circa 1880-1892 Reg. No: LL 74871

Summary:: This military brass button with motto AUT PACE AUT BELLO (either in peace or in war) was excavated at the Commonwealth Block site between 1988 and 2003. Buttons such as this were used by the Victorian Volunteers in the nineteenth century between 1880 - 1892, when the motto was changed to PRO DEO ET PATRIA, VICTORIA (for God and country). Brass buttons were worn by regular soldiers within the force.

Working in Little Lon.
Alongside the tightly packed cottages, commercial enterprise thrived in little Lon. Shops sold food and 'fancy goods'. Factories and workshops manufactured bellows, furniture, waterproof clothing and ice cream.

In the 1880s grocers flourished, and in the 1890s clothing firms and Chinese cabinet-makers dominated the local manufacturing scene. But Little Lon's most numerous businesses were the myriad hotels and brothels.

It is easy to overlook the 'invisible' work carried out in people's homes. Because such work was rarely documented we rely on things left behind to tell the story. The abundance of lace bobbins dug up at Little Lon hints at a lace-making industry and busy lives otherwise hidden from history.
Description:: Round military button, with shank Marked: AUT PACE AUT BELLO Used by the Victorian Volunteers in the nineteenth century. Advice from the Australian War Memorial Curator of Military Heraldry says that such buttons date from c.1880 to c.1892, when the motto was changed. Brass buttons were worn by regular soldiers, unranked, within the force.

Discipline:	Archaeology - Historical
Dimensions:	10 mm (Height), 25 mm (Width)
Dimension Comment:	Width = Diameter

More information

Themes this item is part of:	Little Lon, Little Lon Collection, Clothing & Textiles Collection
On Display at:	Melbourne Museum
Primary Classification:	HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY
Secondary Classification:	Clothing
Tertiary Classification:	closure
Activity:	Clothing
Specific Activity:	Closure
Trench Unit Number:	02/22.1/90
Inscriptions:	Marked: AUT PACE AUT BELLO

Comments

clint witton Posted on 22 Apr 2011 2:32 PM

hi i found the same button in the wall cavity in my house.

Ethne Green Posted on 07 Feb 2012 9:24 PM

Two buttons the same but only 15mm diam. were found with what we presume is my grandfather's dress uniform jacket (white). Robert Dening Crocker was with the Victorian Nounted Rifles (of the 8th Light Horse Brigade) and travelled to Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in London in 1897. The buttons were joined with woollen thread and we guess that they were used like cuff-links through a single button-hole on the jacket.