1 brass button of the Eagle and the Stag, 1890

Item — Box: CFC Buttons Box 1

Identifier: CFC2019.0198.1.44

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

From the Collection:

The Carlson Fable Collection is a gathering of primary fable materials at Reinert Alumni Memorial Library at Creighton University. It grew out of the personal collection of fable materials gathered by Rev. Gregory Carlson, S.J. and was given to the Creighton Libraries in 1996. There are more than 10,000 books and approximately 8,000 artifacts in the collection.

From plates to stamps, from cards to whiskey decanters, from toys to posters, you'll find just about anything you can imagine here. Please explore all that is to offer here in my fables Catalogue of Objects.

This is the largest online catalog of fable related objects on the internet. Many are from Aesop's Fables but you will find La Fontaine, Velazquez and Krylov also represented in this collection.

Dates

1890

Extent

1 Items ; 1" in diameter

Language of Materials

From the Collection: English

From the Collection: Latin

From the Collection: French

From the Collection: German

Additional Description

Abstract

Though this theme of the eagle and stag is listed as a standard button motif, I have no idea what the fable is that is depicted! This button is a bright, very shiny brass piece folded over a different back with yet a third independent piece forming the shank. Help?! BBB shows a similar motif in an apparently smaller button (Plate 154 #27), and for #5 on Plate 153 describes the following story from Pilpay. A stag led his family on the search for food and water. As the land became unfamiliar, he told the females and young deer to wait in hiding. An eagle called to the stag to ask where his family was hidden, saying he wanted to lead them to food and water. The stag recognized the eagle's intentions of capturing a young deer for himself and declined to reveal their whereabouts. In a footnote, BBB gives Madge Valgamore as their authority and note that they could not find this story in any edition of Pilpay. Regretfully, Mrs. Valgamore had not given a reference. So still I say: Help?!