1st Dumbartonshire Volunteer Rifle Corps Officer’s Button

1st Dumbartonshire Volunteer Rifle Corps Officer’s 24mm silver plated button
A silvered open-back officer’s tunic button bearing the device of the 1st Dumbartonshire Volunteer Rifle Corps. The face shows an elephant with a tower (howdah) on its back, standing on ground within a laurel wreath, surmounted by a scroll inscribed FORTITUDO ET FIDELITAS. The reverse carries the maker’s backmark J.R. GAUNT & SON · BIRMINGHAM around a brass shank.

The backmark places manufacture firmly at J.R. Gaunt & Son of Birmingham. The firm used the “J.R. Gaunt & Son Birmingham” mark from 1870, and was incorporated as J.R. Gaunt & Sons Ltd in 1899