British India Steam Navigation Company Officer’s (Plain Background, Roped Edge) Gilt Button – 19mm

British India Steam Navigation Company officer’s uniform button in gilt, produced in the plain background roped-edge pattern worn by officers of the British India Steam Navigation Company throughout the company’s operational period from 1862 to 1972. This Merchant Navy shipping company officer’s uniform button displays the recognised BI company crest device in clear relief on a plain ground within a rope-twist outer border, incorporating the figure of Britannia standing centrally, holding a trident in her right hand and a shield in her left, flanked by a crowned lion to her left, the whole enclosed within the rope-twist rim with the abbreviated company title “BISN Co” visible in raised lettering around the upper arc of the border within the rope edge. The gilt finish and plain, unlined background construction are consistent with the officer’s pattern of this button as produced across multiple decades of the company’s existence, distinguished from the unlined pattern by the absence of any lining or hatching to the background field.

The British India Steam Navigation Company was formed in 1856 as the Calcutta and Burmah Steam Navigation Company by the Scottish trading partnership of William Mackinnon and Robert Mackenzie — Mackinnon, Mackenzie and Co., to operate a mail service between Calcutta and Rangoon. The company was refounded in 1862 under the British India Steam Navigation Company Limited title to operate services from Calcutta and Bombay to Indian Ocean ports, using Bengal coal and supported by a subsidy from the government of Bombay. With the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 the company began direct services between India and the United Kingdom. It thereafter expanded its network of routes progressively across East Africa, the Persian Gulf, the Straits, the Far East, and Australasia, eventually operating more than five hundred ships and becoming one of the largest shipowning companies in the history of British merchant shipping. The company adopted the figure of Britannia — backed by the British lions — as its crest from the earliest years of its corporate identity. This device reflected both the company’s imperial commercial role and its close operational relationship with successive British governments as a mail contractor and troopship operator. Under the chairmanship of Lord Inchcape, the company became part of the P&O group in 1914 through a complex amalgamation, continuing with its own identity, house flag, and officer uniform livery for nearly sixty further years. The last ship to sail in British India livery was the SS Uganda, which was requisitioned as a hospital ship during the Falklands War of 1982, bringing the BI visual identity to its final operational close. The rope-twist border on this button is a consistent feature of BI officers’ uniform buttons across all production periods and sizes, distinguishing the officer’s pattern from those of associated companies within the P&O group.

Manufactured in gilt consistent with British India Steam Navigation Company officer’s uniform button production, this example provides a well-defined representation of the company’s officer livery button in its standard roped-edge plain-background pattern. British India Steam Navigation Company officers’ buttons are collected as examples of British Merchant Navy shipping company uniform hardware, livery insignia of one of the great British imperial steamship lines, and maritime memorabilia of the Indian Ocean, East African, and Gulf trades.

Dimensions 19mm in diameter

Condition Good

NOTE: REVERSE MAY VARY