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Hello everyone! My name is
Kaylee Hagemann, I am a Junior at Western Michigan University. I participated
in the 2017 field season of the Fort St. Joseph Archaeological Project last
summer. I am currently taking an independent study with Dr. Michael Nassaney,
the Project’s Principal Investigator. The independent study involves a careful
examination of all the artifacts recovered during the 2017 field season and
producing a detailed inventory. We clean, count, and weigh every artifact, and
record all the information so we know exactly what was found.
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While
going through a bag with artifacts from the unit I had excavated, N24 W6, with
my pit partner Bryan, Dr. Nassaney and I came across an artifact I had recovered
in August, a few days after the annual Open House. The artifact is a complete 18th-century
cufflink, or sleeve button. The metal is pewter and contains a glass inset in
the middle with brown swirls like a marble. A week later, we found another
cufflink that matched the previous cufflink but it is incomplete. Other
cufflinks have also been discovered on the Fort St. Joseph site.
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The
French have always taken great pride in their clothing and personal adornment,
so even cufflinks have a history and have changed throughout the past 800
years. In the 13th century, string pins and belts were used instead
of buttons to fasten clothing. Later, buttons were used as fasteners when
fitted garments became popular. During the Renaissance of the 17th
century, decorative lacy cuffs were used. Noblemen used ribbons to tie their
cuffs; the elegance of them were a symbol of status in society. By the late 17th century, ribbons
were replaced with jeweled buttons called “sleeve buttons” (also known as cuff
links). By the 18th century, buttons became more ornate. A favorite
style was to create a miniature painting on the underside or glass (design similar
to the specimen found at Fort St. Joseph). These were produced for the elite
classes, as their raw materials were expensive and drove production costs up.
Starting in the mid-1830s and spanning through the early 1900s, the middle
class adopted the use of cufflinks as well. Although they could not afford
gems, replicas were made. Rhinestones and pastels were used as fake diamonds,
copper and zinc alloy were substituted for gold, and cut steel was used for
silver. Cufflinks were in decline once shirts started to come buttons already
fashioned in them in the 1970s. Only those who wanted to keep the tradition
alive would wear cufflinks.
When French cuff shirts became popular in the
1990s, cufflinks became a mainstream fashion accessory for all ages. With the
new fashion trend, the youth were introduced to the adornments of old. Paul
Smith and Gucci started to produce cufflinks that were fashionable by today’s
standards, bringing something that once seen as high-end to the mainstream.
Once viewed as a formal jeweled accessory, cufflinks became accessories for
both men and women to express style individuality.
Adornment
and clothing has always been an important aspect of communication in
civilizations. Since clothing decays, the only adornment left to study are
objects made from stones, metals, glass, etc. that have stood the test of time.
Archaeologists study adornment because it is a way to infer gender, status,
politics, prestige, occupation, and religion through material in the absence of
written documents. In this case, we know that the cufflinks were worn by middle
and upper-class persons. Studying adornment can not only assist in the study
for a specific archaeological site, but can also be useful to show the evolution
of fashion and, depending on the times, the messages they communicate to the
public. After all, adornment style is repetitive and trends have a way of
coming back around.
- Kaylee
