Perhaps a rather unsavoury topic, but nevertheless: I was looking at WW2 German shirts and noticed that some, specifically the 'brown shirts' had turnback double cuffs. More interesting was that they had an attached button. I can't find a good picture of it right now, unfortunately. Were these kinds of shirts common back then? They seem like a good idea for casual shirts where you don't want to wear cufflinks, but prefer the double cuff.
I've never encountered them. But that means nothing! During that era, the world had a great deal more, not just national differences, but differences in customs and practices by region, or even by town!. So it was common for details to be quite different from place to place. A myriad of difference in details was the norm, rather than unencountered as in our homogenized modern world.
I have a shirt, admittedly single-cuff and not vintage, that has both buttons and holes so that you can wear it either with flinks or as a regular barrel cuff. I would expect that for military purposes, buttons might be the more practical sleeve fasteners. Nobody wants to go back on the battlefield because Gunter lost a cufflink.
I like a good double-cuffed shirt but no longer own one. A sharp dressing colleague of mine came to work wearing one and I asked him where he had purchased it. “Brooks Brothers” was his response. I went on line and found the shirt: about $150 per shirt. That was the end of that particular day dream.
I think you're talking about convertible cuffs right? These ones only have one pair of buttonholes, on one side of the cuff. I found this photo which sort of illustrates it. The buttons are on the other side of the top edge. Very true. I was thinking perhaps they were for children (who would lose cufflinks), as the shirt above is a child's shirt.
Tom, Try Natty Shirts. I have a number of their dress shirts. They were well made and reasonably priced. Double cuff (French cuff) is an option I have selected on all.