Buttonsplus

These two silver buttons were made by my friend Di when she was learning some silversmithing and she gave them to me as a Christmas present. That was a nice surprise. I think she did a good job considering she was just learning. She has her initials on the back.

These two plastic buttons are reasonably common and I bought them in 1998. They depict Betty Boop and a Flapper Girl. They sort of replicate the Fabric Garter buttons from the 1920’s. The eyes look right at you.

Here are two more groups of buttons bought in England at Opp Shops in 2018 by my friend Margaret. There are many plastics and some metal of various ages. Like I said it was just a nice surprise and fun to sort through them all. I am sure Margaret had fun in the Opp shops too as she is an addict.

These two groups of buttons are from Opp Shops in England in 2018. My friend Margaret spent a couple of months over there and she visited all the Opp shops and bought a lot of buttons. She loves Opp shops and had great fun. She let me choose some and she kept the leftovers. These seem older than the buttons you could get at that time in our local Opp shops. The first group are mainly plastics and the second group fabric. It was a nice surprise and thrill for me to get them.

Over the years I have haunted the opp shops in the search for buttons but sadly our local opp shops do not have them any more. These groups were bought in 2021 and are quite a nice variety. I hope in years to come some books will be written about these more modern buttons telling dates and materials used etc. I just keep them in boxes and tins with a label and sometimes just tip them out on a tray at night and “play” with them . The saying goes ” small things amuse small minds” but I don’t mind.

There was quite a range of these Beutron Delights original button cards in the shops when I bought them in 2007 so I have a few. They were all in sets of three and the buttons are large at 3 1/2 cm. They make a nice collector’s item but I am not sure how you would use them on a garment. They were made in Thailand.

The day I got this Ivory button was my lucky day. I was in an opp shop in a tiny country town looking for buttons. Another customer asked me what I wanted buttons for and I told her I was a button collector. She had an amazed look on her face and said I have a tin of old buttons at home that I don’t want. To cut a long story short I went to the lady’s home and got a tin of dusty old buttons from her. There were some good buttons and right at the bottom was this dragon Ivory button which was a real bonus. So you never know where or when you may come upon a treasure. They all needed a good clean but that is part of the fun to see them come up nicely.

This Bakelite button has a white metal escutcheon with a topaz glass oblong stone set in it. The bakelite is dark brown which is a common colour for the time. The escutcheon is rivetted on as can be seen on the back and it has a metal loop shank. I guess it is an overcoat button.

I have a set of 12 of these Passementerie buttons which are very old. They have been made of silk thread wound over a wooden button mould then stitched or crocheted in a star type pattern over the top. They have a thread back. You can tell they are handmade as they are a little of centre and not exactly the same. They measure a little over 2 cm.

Here are two old fabric buttons with a thread back. The fabric is a sort of brocade and is rather pretty. There being no actual shank you attach the button by sewing under a few threads. They are not very big.