Usefulness, Ornamental Function and Novelty: Debates on Quality in Button and Buckle Manufacturing in Northern Italy (Eighteenth to Nineteenth centuries)

Between the eighteenth and the first decades of the nineteenth century, button manufacturing in Northern Italy tried to meet customer expectations for new tastes and fashions coming from the European novelty market. The diffusion of new techniques and materials, which were principally directed towards the production of fashionable objects in the English and French style, was followed by a sort of debate that involved the corporative system, local governments and the entrepreneurs, whose prevalent activity was buckle and button manufacturing. This contribution aims at analyzing such a debate on the difference in quality between the local and traditional jewel like products and the new imported fashionable accessories.