1884 Grover Cleveland and Hendricks Woven Silver Lapel Stud DeWitt GC 1884-39

An 1884 Democratic campaign lapel stud for Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks, about 20 mm, cataloged as DeWitt GC 1884-39. The face is woven silver mounted on a tin back, with a brass stud behind for the buttonhole. Woven metal reads as cloth rather than as metal, and nothing else in the 1884 field looks like it: the rest of the trade was stamping shells and printing paper, not weaving wire. Construction this unusual tends to mean a short run by one maker, and it is the reason the number is collected.