Buckles

Buckles, metal instruments, consisting of a rim and tongue, used for fastening straps or bands in dress, harness, &c. These are made on a very large scale in the neighbourhood of Birmingham. Both brass and iron are used for them, the chief kinds being called tongue, roller, brace, and gear buckles. The use of buckles, instead of shoe-strings, was introduced into England during the reign of Charles II. They soon became very fashionable, attained an enormous size (the largest being called Artois buckles, after the Comte d'Artois, brother of the king of France), and were usually made of silver, set with diamonds and other precious stones. In the latter half of the 18th century the manufacture of buckles was carried on most extensively in Birmingham, there being at one time not less than 4000 people directly employed in that town and its vicinity, who turned out 2,500,000 pairs of buckles annually, the prices ranging from one shilling to five guineas, and even ten guineas a pair. When the trade was at its height, however, fashion changed, and in 1791 we find buckle-makers petitioning the Prince of Wales for sympathy, on the ground that owing to the introduction of shoe-strings and slippers, 20,000 persons were in terrible distress. The prince promised to assist them as far as he could by wearing buckles himself, and enjoining his household to do the same; but fashion was too strong even for him, and before the close of the century a great staple trade of Birmingham had become extinct, though shoe-buckles are still by no means unknown.