TTO 0119 Victorian Cut Steel Buckle Victorian cut steel buckle. Wonderful condition with just one chip missing (just above central strut in top row). Rivets are visible on reverse - a sure sign of old cut steel. The buckle is 2 1/8" by 1 5/8" The characteristic of items now known as "cut steel jewellery" is the use of steel studs set into a backing plate (by screws or rivets). Most commonly the studs are facetted but other shapes, such as crescents, vesica and frustra are also used. Perhaps the items now most commonly found, and originally produced in the greatest numbers, are shoe buckles. Steel jewellery was not a cheap substitute for precious stones and certainly not for the paste imitations which were widely used. It is sometimes said that you used steel shoe buckles to walk the muddy streets and then took them off and replaced them with something more valuable when your carpeted destination was reached. This is not really the case. Although steel jewellery doubtless came in all price brackets it was fashionable and prized in its own right - and it could be very expensive.