This early 19th century button from the Southwestern Netherlands is the center of traditional Dutch coral and filigree jewelry The filigree techniques speak to the collision of cultures that was Holland, reaching back centuries before arriving in the Netherlands with Sephardic escapees from religious oppression in Portugal and Spain. In a world before easy travel and railroads, each region developed its own style and regional dress. Living in a country surrounded by the sea, which can be unforgiving, women in the 17th through the 19th centuries wore their coral and precious metal buttons like bank accounts on their person.

• recycled bronze on 18" gold-filled chain
• just over 5/8" wide