Featured Buttons Buttons Buttons

Among a lot of textiles and sewing/needlework stuff I came across a box of buttons. I don’t know much about them in general, I guess some people collect them as simply “buttons”, like stamps or coins. I’m guessing most of these may be more just for the folks who may want to use some in there sewing endeavors? Really not sure, but looking forward to learning more.


Some faceted buttons, the black ones are labeled “jet”


A note says these were on my great grandmother’s dress when she was 18 years old...would’ve been around 1890...notes can’t always be trusted so...


The old coffee can


And some very large buttons..that’s a quarter in the photo for scale

 

Great selection!

Leslie at the Northern Lights Lodge

 

the can is full of shell buttons....

 

Try the jet on some unglazed white china. If it smears, it's real. You g'gma's buttons may be silver.

Carded buttons sell well.

 

lovely. jet was loved by the Victorians.

 

Or... they may be "French" jet, AKA black glass.

 

Yup, hence testing them.

 

Though I'd always loved digging around in my Mom's button tin, started collecting buttons when I was 15 (long time ago!) and my great, great Aunt Karen gave me a huge jar filled with her buttons. It was similar to yours, with buttons ranging from the late 19th century into the mid 20th - and doubt there are any beyond the '50s, if that late.

My button books are all packed away, but can tell you what I see - in the first pic there are some utilitarian buttons, like for pants, shirts, underwear, etc,, made of metal, bone, MOP, vegetable ivory, plastic, etc.; the carded buttons are collectible, the yellow and red cylinder shaped might be catalin, and that box of bits looks interesting, with a couple of cut-steel or faux cut-steel (stamped) buckles that should date to around the 1st quarter of the 20th century.

The second pic's 'jets', though called that, are rarely actually jet, but black glass, yours are likely late 19th century; the red bits are most likely early 20th century Bohemian/Czech glass, sew-on beads/dress ornaments, both button and bead collectors might collect them.

Your great-Grandmother's buttons in the third pic would indeed date around the last quarter of the 19th century, they are 'steel cups', the layered materials on yours look like brass and copper, held in place by a cut-steel rivet.

The fourth pic tin looks to be common MOP (mother of pearl) buttons, other than the tannish ones at lower left which might be pressed horn.

Last has coat buttons, all but the black one at lower left appear to be celluloid, probably date around the 1920s-'40s.

~Cheryl

 

I know nothing about buttons. My mother does, and she has a lot of carded buttons. Most of them came from her mother, who knew even more about buttons. She even had a George Washington button.

Regarding the "jet" buttons, a.k.a. lignite, here is what jet that I found looks like in raw form.

 

Ickle bits of coal