History of BucklesYou say you are into the history of buckles a kind of aficionado, but are you acquainted with the history behind these fascinating creations? As you can imagine, these chic modern accoutrements to your wardrobe did not start out as such. Rather, they arose from their basic utility. Belts and buckles have been used for clothing since the Bronze Age. The story goes back to the 2nd and 3rd century B.C. This is a time-line of the art and fine workmanship, creative craftmanship.
During the 2nd and 3rd century B.C. the Chinese semi nomadic people known as the Xiong-nu wore belt buckles over long Tunics. These belt buckles were highly decorated and were worn as a mark of status.
Germanic invaders, imported animal motifs characteristic of Scythian-Samarian decorative arts for their belt and buckles. This decorative art often represented animals entwined in mortal combat. A fine example of a buckle of a heavy rectangular type decorated with filigree was found in the tomb of Childeric I, king of the Franks, who died in AD 481/482. Several 7th-century gold buckles with interlacing curvilinear patterns and cutaway tongues, now in the British Museum, London, were found in the Sutton Hoo ship burial.
Decorative belt buckles originated in the 1500s throughout regional Spain. Before that buckles had been worn, but were never intended to show any kind of status or message, they were merely for the practical purpose only.
In Western civilizations, men usually insert the belt through the pant loops in a counter-clockwise manner (looking down from above), while women tend to insert the belt in a clockwise direction. For many collectors, collecting antique belt buckles is also a great investment; they look for belt buckles that have a historical value. The most popular buckles are those manufactured and worn during famous wars, e.g.: the American Civil War. Some of these buckles are auctioned for thousands of dollars.
In 1821, the founder of modern-day Texas, Stephen Austin pledged to bring 300 families to the Spanish province that is now the Lone Star state. By 1823, the colonists living there had no standing army to protect them, so they formed a citizens' militia that Austin dubbed the Texas Rangers. By 1835, they were being used to protect against Indians, and they fulfilled that important defensive role in 1836 while Sam Houston led the regular troops to defeat Santa Anna and secure Texas its freedom. Almost exactly one century later, the modern Texas Ranger was born. Today they serve as statewide law enforcers, the oldest of their kind in the whole nation and carry themselves with distinction. For almost 200 years now, they have protected the great state of Texas.
The cowboy belt buckle did not come about until the first of the 20th Century. In reality all cowboys usually wore suspenders or buckles that were derived from military friction buckles.
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