The art of carving intrigues me whatever the article being made or the material used. These ivory buttons are no exception. What intricate work on such small items. Dragons and flowers are the subject matter on them. The largest dragon button ( No. 4) has a self screw in shank which is very unique.
How I got this button is interesting. I went to Rushworth (a tiny old gold mining town) for an outing. The opp shop there is only small but I always go in. I asked the assistant if they had any old buttons and a customer behind me wanted to know why I wanted them. I told her that I was a collector and she said that she had lots of old buttons at home that she didn’t want and would I like them. To cut a long story short, I went to her home and she rummaged in the bottom of an old dirty tin trunk where all the buttons were loose. She put them in a container and home I went full of anticipation. What fun I had after tea sorting through the hundreds of very dirty old buttons. “Millions”of shirt and trouser buttons and quite a lot of old plastics. What a surprise I got upon stumbling across this Carved Ivory Dragon button. It looked much better after a little water and cotton bud treatment. Recently at the Melbourne Buttonfest I saw an identical button for $100. Luckily it had survived the mess and dirt and made my day. So you never know where or when you may find a treasure!! Just keep your ears and eyes open.