Buckle

“ I have never seen a lady's spur of this description, but possibly they are made—if not, they easily could be. They are much the most easy to attach or remove, and there is no chance of a strap being cut in walking or otherwise, or of an over-tight buckle hurting the foot. Their principal advantage, however, is not one of mere convenience, but of safety; the absence of strap and buckle removes one element in a great danger—that of the foot sticking in the stirrup in a fall. ”

“ The Moors, though they do not “gird” themselves with girdles, wear one, but it is under the haïk and over the tunic, and has a remarkable buckle. A buckle, as the sign of royalty, was sent to Antiochus by Jonathan Maccabees. No other Eastern people has a girdle and buckle. Drawers, such as the Levites were enjoined to wear, complete the Moorish dress. ”

“ Buckle, buk′l, n. a metal instrument consisting of a rim and tongue, used for fastening straps or bands in dress, harness, &c.—v.t. to fasten with a buckle: to prepare for action: to engage in close fight.—v.i. to bend or bulge out: to engage with zeal in a task.—n. Buck′ler, a small shield used for parrying. [Fr. boucle, the boss of a shield, a ring—Low L. buccula, dim. of bucca, a cheek.]
Buckra, buk′ra, n. a word used by West Indian and American negroes for a white man—said in a dialect of the Calabar coast to mean 'demon.'
Buckram, buk′ram, n. ”

“ Tying up a fore-leg.—Having “picked up” the foot, we may secure it as follows:
1. By Rarey’s leg strap, which is about 3 ft. long, and is furnished, at one end, with a buckle, below which, a leather “keeper” is placed on both sides (see Fig. 13) . To apply it, the free end is passed round the pastern, from the outside, through the keeper at the back of the buckle, thus forming a loop. Another turn is taken round the forearm, and a second loop is made by passing the end through the buckle. The strap can now be tightened up as may be required, and the end run through the second keeper. ”

“ To one end of the cravat I then made fast the buckle, and the other end I tied, for greater security, tightly around my wrist. Drawing now my body upward, with a prodigious exertion of muscular force, I succeeded, at the very first trial, in throwing [371] the buckle over the car, and entangling it, as I had anticipated, in the circular rim of the wicker-work.
My body was now inclined toward the side of the car at an angle of about forty-five degrees ”

“ Somewhere in the course of the single strap, a buckle may be introduced to regulate the tension of the support. This sort of support has been very much used for children's stockings. It has now been adopted by thousands of women, many of whom have spoken to me very warmly of its value.
LARGE vs. SMALL WOMEN.
Petite, applied to a woman, is a very dear word to the fashionables. ”

“ Cut some thick felt to the same width as the body, and long enough to reach from the point of the semicircle to 2 in. beyond the cross line near the buckle; cover it with basil, and coarse-stitch it with a pointed needle along the centre. Turn the ends neatly over the felt and fasten; then with stitches put it in place next the crupper body. Tack down each end, and run four or five stitches here and there through the body and panel; make sure that the work is well secured at each corner. Cut a hole through the body exactly opposite the buckle 11⁄2 in. wide and broad enough to pass the strap ”

“ He pulled the tan leather belt straight, so that the plain silver buckle was in the middle, took something off the bed and pushed it carefully inside the waistband of his trousers, on the left side, taking great care that its position was right to the fraction of an inch. ”

“ It appears to me that the long coupling reins only add to the weight, which is necessarily considerable, without conferring any benefit, and, indeed, when, as I have seen them, they are so long that the buckle touches the left hand, they can hardly be unattended with danger. ”

“ In Paris, when certain people see you ready to set your foot in the stirrup, some pull your coat-tails, others loosen the buckle of the strap that you may fall and crack your skull; one wrenches off your horse's shoes, another steals your whip, and the least treacherous of them all is the man whom you see coming to fire his pistol at you point blank. ”

“ Fig. 115. Heraldic buckle.
Buckle, Her. The crest of the Pelham family, now represented by the Earls of Chichester. It is a common ornament of ecclesiastical buildings, houses, and other objects in Sussex. (Fig. 115.)
Buckler. (See Clipeus and Scutum.)
Buckram. A cloth stiffened with gum, so called from Bokhara, where it was originally made.
Fig. 116. Bucranium.
Bucranium, R. (βουκράνιον) . An ox’s head from which the flesh has been stripped; an ox-skull employed in the decoration of friezes by Greek and Roman architects. Fig. 116 represents a bucranium in the temple of Vespasian at Rome. ”

“ Arm holes extra large and shirt fastens to trunks at side with invisible catches, making a tight fitting, neat combination. White canvas belt, with adjustable buckle, forms part of trunks, no drawing tape to knot or break. ”

“ Higher up again we get the tuilles or taces, which, from the fact that to adapt themselves to the human form they must narrow at the waist and spread out below, overlap upwards. From the taces are hung the tassets, with strap and buckle, which give increased protection to the upper leg, and yet are not in any way rigid. When the tassets are made of more than one plate they are attached to each other by a most ingenious arrangement of straps and sliding rivets. ”

“ The blckle was so adjusted as that the band could be removed from the bale only by cutting. Upon the buckle were stamped the words: 'Licensed to use only once.' When cut from the bale the band and buckle were sold to persons who used the buckles either upon a new band, or one repaired, and these bands were sold to planters to be used again in baling cotton. ”

“ The buckle of the belt was a snake's-head design with the tail in its mouth, and it fairly gave Jim Camp the shivers. He fought about three rounds, and then his towel came in. He couldn't get near the thing, you see. Funny, isn't it, how we're all scared of some silly thing like that? ”

“ Now, sword-and-buckler and long-sword play was no doubt a manly pursuit and a useful. But, as an every-day companion, the long-sword was incongruous to a fastidious cavalier; and, again, the buckler, indispensable adjunct to the broad swashing blade of home production, was hardly more suitable. In Elizabethan days it soon became obvious that the buckler was inadmissible as an item of gentlemanly attire. It was accordingly left to the body attendant; and the gallant took kindly to the fine rapier of Milanese or Toledan make. ”

“ These should have the knee-band three quarters of an inch wide, lined on the upper side with a piece of plush, and fastened with a buckle, which is much easier than even double strings, and, by observing the strap, you always know the exact degree of tightness that is required to keep up the stocking; any pressure beyond that is prejudicial, especially to those who walk long distances. ”

“ Iron buckler made no better stand than wicker shield against their mad thrusts and crashing strokes, linked harness proved no stronger fence than linen gown, and bearded men of war seemed as but puny infants contending with this gigantic foe. ”

“ But you can readily see that the halter had been drawn fearfully tight, and I could not get slack enough to unfasten the buckle. At last I gave a hearty wrench, and was just about to be able to slip the [Pg 105] prong of the buckle through the hole, when the insecure talus on which I was standing, and on which the animal had been resting, began to slide. Fortunately I am fairly quick on my feet, and in two or three springs I reached a little outjutting terrace. ”

“ The whole upper edge of the buckler is always surrounded by a very ornamental semicircular border, sometimes semi-elliptical, of punctures placed in the meshes of a net-work in high relief and arranged close together, in rays, passing perpendicularly from the buckler and forming at the same time when observed transversely, curved lines parallel to its upper rim or edge, excepting at the sides, where they diverge, leaving a space occupied by other lines of dottings, parallel to the former, but speedily terminating on the cheeks of the buckler. ”

“ The buckles have some resemblance to ladies' hair-pins on a colossal scale. They are made of slips of withy, twisted and doubled in their middles and pointed at their ends; the runners are long straight slips of the same. ”

“ Usually these bows or ribbons were allowed to fall loose, in which case, however, they never reached such extravagant proportions as in the before-mentioned instance. A square-toed shoe of a{296} Dutch officer of the Guards, 1662, is given, having a loose bow, also a shoe of a musketeer with a small buckle on the instep and a large tongue or flap in front. ”

“ What provoked our hero most of all were the new patent shoe-buckles, the fine points of which would not take firm hold of the coarse leather shoes, but on every bold step burst asunder—so that he was obliged to keep his eye warily upon them, and in consideration of their tender condition, to set his feet down to the ground very gently. ”

“ It is natural, indeed, that before putting on the harness once more we should take a look at the collar and buckles, and at the load to be drawn, and it may be allowable to the soldier, while on his way to rejoin the ranks, to take just a glance at the line of march before he falls in. ”

“ A much smaller buckler, or centre of a buckler, only 91⁄4 inches in diameter (also with two rings of bosses) , presumably found in the Isis, [1330] near Eynsham Bridge, is in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries. It has a slightly conical boss, surrounded by a circle of smaller bosses between two raised ribs. There is also a raised rib round the margin formed by turning over the metal towards the outer face. In the outer ring of bosses two are missing at the places where, no doubt, were formerly the rivets of the buttons or loops. ”

“ The buckler was of an oblong and concave figure, four feet in length, and two and a half in breadth, framed of a light wood, covered with a bull’s hide, and strongly guarded with plates of brass. Besides a lighter spear, the legionary soldier grasped in his right hand the formidable pilum, a ponderous javelin, whose utmost length was about six feet, and which was terminated by a massy triangular point of steel of eighteen inches. ”

“ The common belt has leathern straps, and buckles to fasten it, an iron ring and a pocket. A double cincture for wrestling forms a very strong girth, which is put on by pupils who are very strong, when they wrestle. ”

“ I looked around and saw that the newcomers mingled with us must have been a regular armed band; all had bucklers slung at their backs, few lacked a sword at the side. Some had bows, some "staves"—that is, bills, pole-axes, or pikes. ”

“ Bucklers went out fifty years ago, "about the twentieth of Queen Elizabeth"; men do not now swash with them, or fight in that way. Iron armor has mostly gone out, except in mere pictures of soldiers; King James said, It was an excellent invention; you could get no harm, and neither could you do any in it. Bucklers, either for horse or foot, are quite gone. Yet old Mr. Stowe, good chronicler, can recollect when every gentleman had his buckler; and at length every serving man and city dandy. ”

“ Representations of the Sword-and-buckler contest occur in Roy. MSS. 14, E. iii. and 20, D. vi., both engraved in Strutt's Sports. See also Hefner, Pt. ii. Plate vii. All these, however, are miniatures of the fourteenth century; though 14, E. iii. is early in the period. From these examples we learn that the buckler was about a foot and a half in diameter, had a boss in the centre, and was held at arm's length by a bar crossing the hollow of the umbo, exactly in the manner of the Anglo-Saxon shields described and figured in a former page. (See woodcut, No. 20.) ”

“ CENTRAL BAR NICKEL BUCKLES ea. $.10; doz. $1.10
STANDARD BELT BUCKLES—brass or nickel finish for belt widths of 1′′ (the size recommended for the standard 12-strand belt) . 11⁄4′′, and 11⁄2′′ ea. $.07; doz. ”

“ Blind bucklerÿ (Naut.) , a solid buckler. Ð Buckler mustardÿ (Bot.) , a genus of plants (Biscutella) with small bright yellow flowers. The seed vessel on bursting resembles two bucklers or shields. Ð Buckler thorn, a plant with seed vessels shaped like a buckler. See Christ's thorn. Ð Riding bucklerÿ (Naut.) , a buckler with a hole for the passage of a cable.
Buc¶kler, v.t. To shield; to defend. ”

“ Three sets had been put in requisition without undergoing the requisite repairs and revisions; girths, buckles, straps, gave way one after the other in a manner which in any other country would soon have brought us to a stand still; but on each mischance a man would slip off, make a grasp at a doum branch, and commence plaiting: between the ductility of the leaf and the dexterity of their fingers, girths and bands were miraculously restored, buckles and ties supplied. ”

“ These tie strings whose function is to hold down the brace, may be either tied separately around the waist, or looped over the waist straps, or secured thereto near the front by buckles. Another important feature of my inven-tion is that with my construction, the back support and shoulder straps may be formed with a single continuous strip of suitable nonelastic webbing, flexible stays being used to maintain the form and shape of the back support. ”

“ A really appropriate and practical design for embroidery should be schemed not merely with a view to its execution with the needle, but with a view to its execution in a particular stitch or stitches—and possibly by a particular embroidress. To be safe in designing work so minute as that on Illustration 93, one must be sure of the needlewoman who is to execute it.
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93. DELICATE SATIN-STITCH—WORKED BY MISS BUCKLE.
My reference to old work must not be taken to imply that design should be in imitation of what has been done, or that it should follow on those lines. ”

“ By way of résumé, it may be added that for line [178] work, more or less fine, crewel, chain, back and rope stitches, and couched cord are most suitable; crewel for long lines especially, and rope stitch for both curved and straight lines; for a boundary line, buttonhole is most emphatic; for broader lines, herring-bone, feather, and Oriental stitches answer better; ladder-stitch has the advantage of a firm edge on both sides of it. Satin and chain stitches, couching and laying, and basket work make good bands, but are not peculiarly adapted to that purpose. ”