Month: February 2025

These three vegetable ivory buttons have been painted with a scene. You can tell they are hand painted by the small variances in the work. I believe they come from Equador. They are new to my collection and I now have a few of this type, some with faces.

These three buttons were made by my friend Di Taylor and feature a bird cabachon which has been beaded around. She did the beading on the back also with a tiny beaded loop for the shank. They are certainly unique. She also made the card box with the zentangle decoration. What a nice gift for me to receive.

Here is a group of glass buttons realistically showing fruit and vegetables. They are new to my collection. I just bought them because they are bright and thought they would make a nice group. I have nothing else like them.

Here is a plastic button that is new to my collection. It is modern but I do not know what age. The gold rose against the black is rather nice and would compliment a plain fabric. It measures a little under 3 cm. The back is convex with a small square self shank.

These small plastic buttons on their original card were made in France. They are hand painted with what I think is meant to be a vase of flowers. At first I thought the blue at the bottom was some kind of Oriental writing but that didn’t make much sense on French buttons. I may be wrong. They are sew through type and measure a little under 1 1/2cm.

Here are five plastic children’s buttons. Are they from the 1940s or maybe 1950s ? I have just acquired them. I find old children’s buttons hard to get. These ones are painted with a picture of what I thought was a rabbit but upon further scrutiny I think they must be a mouse as they have a long tail. Am I right? They are cute anyway.

Here are three coconut shell buttons which I have just acquired. They are modern and vary greatly in their design and colour. The black floral and the orange geometric ones I think are painted. I am not sure of the one that looks like red tulips; it could be a transfer. I have quite a few coconut shell buttons and they have a variety of designs and techniques which make them interesting.

This button is new to my collection. It is of a smokey light brown colour with an amber/brown coloured facetted glass centre. It is a realistic flower button and has a metal six segment rosette shank so I think quite old. It measures 4 cm.

Here is a modern button in purple, black and various colours. The triangular shape makes it different and I think quite striking. It would make a real statement on the right garment. I can’t place my hands on it at the moment to measure it but it is quite a nice size I know. I have thousands of buttons in my collection and can’t remember where they all are.

These three wooden buttons are modern and have different owls depicted on them. They are transfer printed I think but are quite good impressions. I can’t think what type of garment one would use these buttons on so I just consider them a collector’s item. Maybe a neutral coloured home spun woollen knitted cardigan ! They are a sew through type and measure just under 3 cm.