Boxer Jack Broughton crafted rules for the London Prize Ring and this phrase showed up in those rules in a more sophisticated form. He meant it in the literal sense but today we use it mostly in the figurative to imply that something is underhanded or unfair. (source)
There are two probable origins for this idiom and I think both are equally plausible. The first one is that when you spread butter on bread you are buttering it up like one would do when trying to flatter someone. The second is in ancient India there was a practice of throwing balls of butter at statues to ask for favor, i.e. buttering them up. ( source ) When we use the phrase today we generally mean that extreme flattery is used to gain information or favor. It's not always necessarily a compliment.
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