Washington Buttons
George Washington Inaugural Button, Eagle & Star with Cobb-17H Design Repeated on Reverse & Silvered Unlisted
(1789) George Washington Inaugural Button, Eagle and Star Type, Albert WI-12C, of the Unlisted Cobb-17H Variety with Design Repeated on Reverse, Traces of Silvering on Both Sides, Near Extremely Fine.
35 mm. Very Rare. Possibly Unique as the Albert "Unlisted" Cobb-17H Variety. This major design variety has 63 incuse dots or indentations forming the outer border. Within this is another border of extremely fine denticles (incuse lines). This button has on the reverse, a mirror image of the obverse design. Albert does not mention this feature in his catalog, making this a very rare example of this type. This example with traces of original Silvering that appears on both sides, especially the back, as shown. Its original shank is fully intact and perfectly straight on the back. The Cobb catalog of Washington Inaugural Buttons lists this variety with design showing on the back as "Cobb-17H". Four different quality examples of the smooth "Plain" back variety button sold in the Stack's January 21, 2003 sale of the Cobb Collection for $2,700 to $5,000 (hammer price). However, there were NO examples of the Cobb-17H, the Variety with its design repeated on the reverse, offered in that sale.
KEYWORDS:
America's First President, First Inauguration, George Washington Inaugural Buttons, Political Button, Historic Button, Commemorative Button, First United States President