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Button collectors Janel Smith, Clare Bazley, Faye Wolfe, and Ida Krenzin -- photographed at the California State Button Society 2006 Show. Janel's Button BackgroundLike many children, I first became aware of buttons as "toys" when I was handed a tin of buttons to play with. I must have been 3- or 4-years old. My maternal grandmother clipped and saved buttons off clothes before she turned the fabric into house cleaning rags. My mother, a teacher, used buttons to help elementary school children with counting tasks. Then, when I was 16 years old, I volunteered time at a second hand store -- to benefit a local hospital. Here, I came across many button tins and sewing boxes available for sale. Their variety of colors and materials was inspiring. I had visions of using the buttons to decorate clothing and other textiles. Some of these buttons made it home into a sorting box, but got no further. It was at this time -- in the 1960s -- that my paternal grandmother informed me that there was a hobby called "button collecting". Her own aunts had collected in the 1930s. To my surprise, the "collection" was intact and ready to be gifted to me.
During the 1990s the Sacramento club, to which I belonged, consisted of about 40 members. The California state club included 260 to 300 members. Nationally there were about 3000 members. When I moved to the Sierra foothills where there was no club, I formed a new one and shared the hobby with new enthusiasts.
Button collecting can take a person many directions. For the dog lover, there are dog buttons. For the equestrian, there are horse and livery buttons. For military and railroad enthusiast, there are uniform buttons. The list goes on. Periodically, for your enjoyment I'll post photos of buttons I love (in addition to the ones I am selling).
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Send mail to
Janel@ButtonsInTime.com with
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The collection had been stored in two cardboard boxes. It was as if I
had discovered buried treasure -- of little monetary value, but treasure just
the same. Buttons were sewn onto
thin paper plates. (Yes, the ones that you use at picnics!) Each
plate included a handwritten name and date -- cataloging the button gifts from
friends -- and the date the buttons were sewn to the plate. In addition
there were buttons threaded into what is called a "charm string". The wives'
tale says that 999 buttons is good luck. More than that and the collector
will die an old maid.
The aunts who accumulated these buttons passed on in the early 1940s. They
were not married and did not have any children. (Yes, they ignored the 999 rule.) Three decades later, the "friends"
named on those paper plates in the
collection had become a mystery. At the time I received the collection,
the plates had accumulated a considerable amount of dust. Some of the
metal buttons had corroded with rust, too. Sad to say, the plates were not
such that they could be displayed. I began removing and cleaning the
buttons and separating them into groups -- by color (a beginner's approach). I kept a few of them
in their original groupings, and mounted them onto fabric that would perhaps become a quilt one day.
Each square was to
represent one friend's button gifts.
For another 15+ years the buttons laid in storage. My career objectives
took priority in my life. Then there was marriage and the life of two.
One day my husband discovered in the newspaper a listing that announced an upcoming
meeting... of button collectors! I had thought the hobby had passed on
along with the great, great aunts! To my surprise, the #1 woman's hobby of
the 1940's had never stopped. Our town had a local club. There were
other clubs throughout the state, plus a state group and a national association!
Within one meeting I was hooked.
Today, I live in the town of Bend, Oregon (population 74,000). This is
a youthful town with loads of outdoor recreational activities to choose from --
from river rafting and kayaking to mountain climbing; snowshoeing and skiing to
star gazing. In addition to my button hobby, I enjoy visual arts (ceramics and painting)
and the study of history. These fit nicely with the study of buttons.
Buttons are a record of their industrial times -- reflecting when a material was
discovered or invented and when it came into broad usage. Pictorial
designs (and colors) incorporated into buttons reflect the popular (and
outrageous) styles and themes of their time. And the manufacturing methods
employed -- whether laborious hand work or mass mechanization -- reflect the
aesthetic values and practical issues of the period's manufacturing.
