Charro Button Keychain in Silver saving

Charro Button Keychain in Sterling Silver

Classic keychain used in Salmantine folklore as a key ornament

A charro button is a jewel belonging to the traditional and popular folklore of the province of Salamanca in Spain. The charro button has metallic materials, becoming in its most valuable format in gold, although the most common is silver. It has flattened round shape always with the same engraving on the front. It is one of the main pieces of what is known as "Filigrana Charra". This phrase is intended for all kinds of work in silver, such as: spoons, tie pins, cufflinks, brooches, earrings, keychains etc.

The origins of the charro button are extremely dark and very difficult to explain, with several theories in this regard. Because of its traditional form, there are those who argue that it is a deformation of a solar disk of a Celtic or Celtiberus character and that it could be used as an ornament or distinctive sign since the time of the High Empire, back in the 2nd and 1th centuries BC.

It is known that certain Roman positions used small ornaments to join pieces of dress, such as the robe and that were used by assimilation among the Visigoths, so that the appearance of this button could be a deformation of them. However, the fact that its spatial scope is reduced apart from the present Province of Salamanca and southern Zamora makes the button think of as some element of its own that subsisted on Muslim domination. Since the seventeenth century it has been frequently used in charros suits as a piece of silver. Its relationship with some forms of damasquinado makes others think of possible Mudejar derivations, a fact that is supported by the concentric character of the balls that form it and the absence of empty spaces. As a piece of goldsmithing it would survive the Reconquest, although reduced to strictly rural areas (there are no plastic representations of it until the seventeenth century). In any case, it gained great relevance from that date as saving a distinctive element of the Salmantine being and feeling.