Abuttonlady’s Button Stories

Raise your hand if you love collecting the brightly colored Colt buttons. Or hands, since I am referencing the company that also produced firearms. So many, on first hearing this, are astonished to realize that buttons would come from such an unlikely source. The Colt company was so innovative and production cost concerned that they decided to produce their own plastics for the gun handles. This consequently created an offshoot to uses for the plastic and caused a secondary industry to the guns. The Colt-Rock Plastics Division, founded in 1918, branched out in the 1920’s. Things like perfume and cosmetics containers, knobs for appliances and more than I will list here because my focus is on the buttons.

For years, the only button collectors really recognized and cared to add to a collectible button hoard were the Cameo topped Rouge/Perfume buttons. With a self-shank and a screw on lid, it was often a revelation to the unaware that the button could be opened to reveal a cream that is sometimes still present. Who wouldn’t want a button with a secret compartment? Consequently, these are highly desirable and therefore costly as well.

At some point in the early 2000’s collectors got a bug for rounding up all the potential other buttons possibly produced by Colt. Collecting these plastic buttons quickly became a contentious adventure. At first they were only attributed by a recognizable “bow tie” shank and a familiar feel or even “clicky clacky” sound a bunch of them make when being sorted.

The plastic material Colts are made of is amino resin and much similar to a product from the same time period that many remember as Melmac, a dinnerware and picnic item. The weight and sound of these are practically iconic.

Naturally there were many imitators and Colt didn’t seem to care, as they never sold their buttons under the Colt name but became a “production source” to the button industry. So, many companies sold them under their own name. Le Chic, Lansing and True Craft being some of the most familiar.

For collectors now interested in finding and cataloging an example, or two or three, of every button Colt made, the sad discovery that all their records were destroyed when they sold the plastics division about 1956. Which makes identifying them as “Colt” quite challenging. The only way to verify a legitimate Colt is by salesman sample cards with the Colt name and logo or by only a few records that are still around. In some ways this makes the collecting of them limited enough to have a satisfying closure to finding all of the 86 identified. Some of them aren’t easy to find, not being plentiful, so this also makes the hunt entertaining. If it was too easy, we’d all move on and be bored with them. Aside from the ever-desirable Rouge button, the realistic Tulip and bicolored Sunflower are also a happy find. To add to the quest, look for pearlized finish, metalized and metal bound and certainly some colors are less obtainable. Orange and purple. One of the greatest draws to collecting Colts is that they are pretty inexpensive compared to all the other kinds of collectible buttons.

The pursuit of the colorful and cheerful patterns is so pleasing that every Colt Fan will pleasurably continue to sift through bags and boxes of what we reference as “house dress” period buttons. They can still be found in “Antique Mall Jars” and Grandma’s Button box. Mining for Colts is a relaxing pastime punctuated with the “ah ha” moments of a “find”.

© Clare Bazley…abuttonlady

See how they shine! Metal buttons with reflecting capability are a distinctive draw to the eye, which is the point. Since the Victorian era, when making the most of a dimly lit environment was an effort, every opportunity to reflect light was ventured on any surface, particularly buttons on clothing. Candle light could give a woman’s accoutrement a mysterious dazzle.

The name Twinkle, for a button, was not coined until lately, and in the US, most likely in the 1970’s. I’ve not yet discovered if it was given by collectors or manufacturers. Since many button names have been created by the collecting organization, to give easy reference to a pictorial or type of button, my tendency is to believe that a collector came up with the reference. I heard it commonly mentioned in the late ‘90’s about the type of button discussed here.

I have most every button book published, and without going through every Hobbies magazine, the first reference to buttons, so named as Twinkles, is in Primrose Peacock’s Book, “Discovering Old Buttons” published in 1978.

The metal buttons we have come to love as “Twinkles” were disdained by collectors in their contemporary times. This is often the case with whatever is lately made, while collecting buttons of “olden times’. The earliest made with reflector quality were certainly Victorian, usually mirror type borders and backgrounds are found and the buttons are referred to as ‘Perforates’ with the other material showing through. The metal background can be seen in varying colors, brass, aluminum, foils and multicolor is particularly of interest. These may be judged by the shank, look for the loop shanks and japanned backs. A few are mounded.

Most Twinkle buttons found today are of the 20th century or modern period. The buttons from WWI period were made in Czechoslovakia and one may often find back-marks saying so. After WWII, American made metal buttons similarly twinkled, distinguished from the earlier as less elaborate. One might find many an original carded set marked ‘Made in USA’. Jill Gorski’s, “Buttons Field Guide” book, 2009 has the most photographs of Twinkles in a published book.

For variety, collectors may wish to look for pictorial Twinkles, those that are painted, those that imitate other materials, like woven fabric for instance, and sew through twinkles which are less common and twinkles with pastes.

The lacy Filigree look of this type of button is quite attractive and searching is fun because you will be very likely to have success. And that, of course is fulfillment to the collector’s heart.

© Clare Bazley…abuttonlady

“Blue and green should not be seen without a colour in between”. Remember this old saying that guided color choices for the discriminating lady or gentleman? Well, I think of it, since my mother used to quote it to me every now and then, every time I look at some of my most favored buttons. I never could quite understand the reason it should be so discordant. I mean, the colors are combined everywhere in nature. Peacocks, for instance. I actually seem to be attracted to the combination and hence it has affected my button collecting. Irresistible to me, are the enamel buttons with these two colors. So much so that the very first button I spent “big money” on was a Liberty and Co, Sterling, hallmarked, absolutely gorgeous enamel button with a baroque pearl in the center.

The Arts and Crafts movement of 1861 through 1925 was a revolt against everything Victorian. The overdone, the cluttered and the ornate. Simplicity of lines and use of materials that were common and inexpensive like silver, copper, and brass were utilized by the artisans. Motifs came from medieval Celtic designs and from nature, peacock feathers, flowers and leaves. Proponents of the movement wanted to create art at prices the working class could afford.

Archibald Knox was instrumental in Liberty design and through the Silver Studio, Liberty engaged in his help to design two ranges of Liberty metalwork. “Cymric”, the silver range, was launched first in 1899. Some of the most beautiful sterling silver jewelry and buttons were in this line. Of primary interest are pewter and silver objects with strategically placed areas of colored enamels in blue, green, orange, violet and red and semi-precious stones. Including buttons. They are beautiful objects that elicit intense desire on the part of the collector.

The back of a Liberty button is easy to identify. It carries the logo, “L & C” in diamond shapes, hallmarks and a soldered shank that looks like a humped up inchworm. The Cymric buttons will be marked Cymric as well. Usually the buttons were sold in boxed sets of six.

As desirable as these buttons are, I fear I will never have a varied collection of them. Amazingly, even though the artistes who created these gems of buttons, meant them to be available to “the common man”, they have reached such a desirability that the buttons are often beyond touch.

But I will never cease to be drawn to the blue and green of Liberty.

© Clare Bazley…abuttonlady

In Liberty’s realm, where silver sings,
Archibald Knox gave buttons wings.
Peacock plumes in blue and green,
Enamel dreams, a lover’s sheen.

From England they came, the crown jewels bright,
Late eighteen-hundreds, a collector’s delight.
Fused with glass, their colors play,
Tiny relics of a patient day.

Valentine whispers in every hue,
A heart, a tendril, a stitch or two.
Buttons bloom where passions meet,
Sewn with love, a treasure sweet.

Oh, button friends, hold history near,
Each curve, each shade, a tale to hear.
From frock to card, they softly call,
Liberty’s gift, enamels all!

© Clare Bazley…abuttonlady

With AI Assistance, combining my two articles, Enamel Buttons Will You Be Mine and Give Me Liberty.

There is something enchanting about the unobtainable. The more difficult itis to find something the more we want it. So it is with enamel buttons. The less expensively made, mass produced, enamel buttons of the late 1800’s were once plentiful. With abundant period charm they are popular with collectors and finding them in a collectible venue is less likely now than ever.

Never- the- less, hope springs eternal, the search is the thing and finding brings joy. The lovely enamel button is like a wearable valentine. Painted with pretty ladies, couples, flowers and birds they seem kin to the paper love- tokens we exchange on February 14. Enameling, a truly ancient technique, may be one of the oldest decorating arts applied to buttons.

Examples of the art have been found from as early as 1000 BC. Metals are decorated with a fused-on glassy glaze. Gold, silver, brass or copper may be the base on which to create little masterpieces using the same methods as the ancients differing only in the use of machines and electricity as opposed to hand tools and wood fired kilns. The way these metals are prepared to receive the powdered glass is seen in four differing methods. In cloisonné metal, walled enclosures are built up or soldered on the metal surface of the button and then filled with powdered glass and heat fused. This technique was perfected in the Far East; therefore most of the cloisonné buttons found are from China or Japan.

In producing Champlevé enamel the metal surface is gouged out to form depressions which is then filled and fired. In Europe this method was favored over the painstaking laying on of wires-for-walls in the Cloisonné technique. Most Champleve enamel buttons of the 1800’s are produced of machine stamped brass and then hand enameled.

In the Russian favored Basse-taille decoration, you see an overall symmetrical pattern, stamped on the metal, in low relief and then covered with a transparent enamel of one color.

The sweethearts of the enamel buttons are the painted enamels, also known as emaux peints. Produced mostly in France, the colors on these are not separated by metal dividers. Glass pigments are very finely ground and mixed with water. Like painting with colored sand, each color is applied to an already fired background, usually white, and fired successively with a fired transparent layer of clear to seal and give depth and brilliance.

© Clare Bazley…abuttonlady