7/8” real photo button without dot pattern pictures both men in sepia with their names above.

AMERICAN PINBACK BUTTON BADGE FEATURING ALFRED DREYFUS & EMILE ZOLA

c. 1899

Reverse has brass collet and fixed horizontal pin with backpaper (couple of letters are covered by the collet) reading “MANDEL KERN/Photographer, Now At/196 E. Broadway/Button Made By/B. Harris, (?) 52 Bowery.” Very minor surface wear in reflected light, otherwise, in mint condition.

Seemingly, a unique surviving example. Provenance: The Hake Collection (see www.hakes.com/Auction/ItemDetail/54905). Alfred Dreyfus was a French Jewish artillery officer whose trial and conviction in 1894 on charges of treason turned into one of the most tense political dramas in modern French history with a wide echo throughout Europe. Known today as the Dreyfus Affair, the incident eventually ended with Dreyfus`s complete exoneration.