A fine large 25mm gilt tunic button for the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment of Foot, better known as The Black Watch. The face bears the regiment’s distinctive eight-pointed star with the numeral 42 at the centre, the classic pre-1881 pattern worn before the Childers Reforms amalgamated the regiment. Officer’s quality, with the crisp detail and rich gilding typical of a privately purchased button rather than an issue piece.
The reverse is stamped with the maker’s mark of W. Jones & Co., 36 Regent Street, London — a Regent Street address puts this firmly in the upper end of the Victorian military outfitting trade, supplying officers rather than the rank and file. The address is consistent with a mid-Victorian date, placing this button around 1850 and pre-dating the regiment’s 1881 redesignation.