Month: July 2025

This purple fabric covered button is beautifully made in two layers with a cream satin centre. I guess it graced some lovely fashionable garment in it’s day. The back is completely covered with light purple fabric which is a bit different. Many different styles were used for the back of fabric covered buttons over the years. I do not have many done this way.

Here are two groups of old fabric covered buttons and it is interesting to compare these fabrics with those that are in the shops today. They were much more subdued in the olden days. You could have your buttons made up for you with left over fabric or for a simpler type buy a kit at the haberdashery store and make them yourself. How things have changed.

Here is yet another group of Bakelite buttons, many carved which I guess are overcoat buttons. They are thick and chunky and to me good looking and well made. They mainly have a metal loop shank.

Here is a nice group of bakelite buttons in various sizes, colours and designs. Some are carved, some with metal trim and some inlaid with different materials. I love them all and they do make a nice group.

Here are three glass buttons designed and produced by Grant Featherston and his wife Claire in the 1946 period. They have a good look about them and look great when displayed en masse. I have quite a nice little collection of them in a wooden box. Their designs in gold lustre are simple but very effective.

Here are three buttons which were given to me recently having been brought back from Hong Kong. They are really different from any new buttons which I have purchased. One has aqua enamel and some clear glass stones, one is very pale pink enamel with a gold Lotus flower and the other one is gold metal and is meant to bring good luck. What a lovely present.

I bought these buttons from a photo and thought they were much bigger. They are tiny but I still love them. They have tiny birds painted on them. I am sure I have seen them in a button book but now can’t find them. I have a feeling the seller said they were camel bone from Iran but I haven’t written anything on the card which is remiss of me.

Here is a Caramel glass button with a lovely pressed floral design. There are traces of white paint so I think the flowers were once painted. It is fairly old I think and has a metal shank but not a four way box type. It measures a little over 2 1/2 cm.

I bought this button from China in 2018. It is much better in reality and has a metal base which has been enamelled in dark brown. It has amber coloured small stones curving around it and is topped with a large stone in the middle. It is a high domed button and measures a little over 3 1/2 cm so is quite large. Surely it would be a decorative button and not very functional.

Here are two more enamel buttons new to my collection. I was pleased to be able to purchase them. They both have open work. One is mainly orange, red and green while the other is brown and black with a little pink rose and two large cut steels. They measure a little over 2 cm.