
In this episode Martin Kamer talks about clothes buttons. Some buttons were functional, others were worn for purely decorative reasons. For a time, steel was more valuable than silver. It was accordingly chic to wear buttons and shoe buckles made out of steel. Kamer bought a man's coat from a dealer in London. This coat comes from Germany (about 1805). The dealer did not buy the box of paste buttons at that time at the auction because he thought that one button would be missing. Kamer did not give up until the buttons belonging to the coat were in his possession.