The Wide World of Collectible Buttons

 When it comes to antiques and collectibles few fields are as remarkably diverse as the simple functioning button.

Today the world of collectible buttons range in material from brass to Bakelite and range in design from striking Art Deco to fancy cloth.

 Historically the button has been crafted from just about every possible substance including copper, enamel, glass, gold, horn, ivory, pearl, porcelain, shell, silver, and wood. Some were decorated with rhinestones, some were hand-painted, and some were eventually mass-produced to be resistant to washing machines.

 Partly as a result of all that, the sometimes lightly regarded button is without peer in its range of appeal.

 Various documents made reference to buttons as early as the 17th century. In 1651 England it was noted that John Eliot had ordered three gross of pewter buttons for trading with the Indians in the new world. Elsewhere inventories sometimes listed black “colored” buttons, while button “pairs” usually referred to sets of silver or gold buttons used on the sleeves of men’s fashionable coats.

 Advertisements as early as the 1730s called attention to so-called Philadelphia buttons. Such buttons crafted from brass were produced in significant numbers by Caspar Wistar. The buttons were said to be “warranted for seven years” because they were so durable. Philadelphia buttons became extremely popular, and Wistar and his son Richard were among the first Americans to grow wealthy in the button business.

 In 1746 the estate of John Burton of Boston included a “parcell of christalls for buttons.” In addition to glass (crystal) and brass, buttons of that period included those with a horn base and covered with mohair. Some finer buttons were trimmed in silver. By the 1750s a French directory was listing more than 40 different types of buttons available to the public including a number involving fancy bead and tapestry work.

 Famed cabinetmaker Benjamin Randolph began producing and advertising wooden buttons around 1769 as an alternative to British metal issues. Randolph’s wooden buttons was among the first formal efforts to boycott goods from England. When the revolutionary war occurred the uniforms of American forces generally bore pewter buttons. Button designs on the military uniforms varied, but many were marked USA.

 Historical records show that President George Washington himself wore rather creative buttons on his suit for his inaugural of 1789. The large gilt buttons were designed by William Rollinson of New York City and were engraved with the Great Seal of the United States.

 Ultimately leading Colonial craftsmen turned to providing elegant buttons of silver and gold for prosperous citizens. By the 1790s even the legendary patriot and silversmith Paul Revere was offering a considerable range of buttons for the gentleman’s coat, sleeve, or jacket.

 Revere’s buttons were made of silver, gold, stone and tortoiseshell. For the more modest budget there were still plenty of pewter buttons to choose from, along with other types. In Connecticut one late 18th century maker offered buttons of “hardened tin” which were advertised as “very serviceable and of good appearance.”

 The relatively stark contrast in the content and quality of buttons continued in the early 1800s.

In high fashion were highly decorative gilt buttons much like those championed prior to that time by George Washington. Early 19th century gilt issues were some times strikingly illustrated with images of fruits or flowers. Others were plain in design but highly polished. Both metal and shell were used as basic material for the gilt buttons. Makers proud enough to include their name or initials on the backs of the buttons included Benedict & Burnham; W. H. Jones & Company; and Wadham, Coe & Company.

Elsewhere there were modified pewter buttons sometimes identified as “hard whites.” They differed from older pewter issues in that they were now given wire loops which were embedded in the processing of the pewter alloy. Most of the “hard whites” were plain in design, but some were given a star-like mark. Numerous manufacturers, like the makers of some gilt buttons, added their name or initials on the button backs.

 During the first half of the 19th century gilt and enamel buttons remained in demand in European countries including France and England which had the most stylish. Some wooden buttons with clothing covering were in use, and in 1851 Nelson Goodyear obtained a patent for a “hard and inflexible rubber” button. Rubber buttons became quite popular in the United States for a time, overshadowing most others including glass and pottery types.

 By the final quarter of the 19th century the wide world of buttons also included fashionable selections of pearl, jet, ivory and even calico fabric examples. Frequently fine buttons of that era were sold in groups of five, rather than individually or in pairs.

While richly done silver buttons were available at the onset of the 20th century, the majority of buttons tended to be plain and offered little or no decoration. The authors of Buttons: The Collector’s Guide, Nancy Fink and Maryalice Ditzler, suggest that most buttons of that period were representative of the ordinary shirt button. Moreover darker buttons were usually favored over lighter colors.

 However, the authors point out that America did turn to a few fancy cloth buttons by the 1920s. Selections ranged from an image of cartoon character Betty Boop to the sometime fancy floral patterns which matched the cloth of the garment being worn.

 No one can say exactly when Americans actually began collecting buttons as opposed to merely saving them in a tin box or glass jar for future use. Certainly by the late 1940s advice on button collecting was clearly in print.

 “Any button, made up to as late as 1920, is now worth more than the original purchase,” declared Morgan Towne in the 1949 book Treasures in Truck and Trash. “Study all old buttons found in boxes – dress buttons, cuff and sleeve buttons, collar buttons, all kinds of buttons – and then study button books.”

 Town went so far in those years immediately after World War II as to suggest would-be collectors could cut buttons off of old dresses, old coats, old waistcoats, old overalls, and old uniforms.

 “Study them, not as a collector but as a prospector who, in finding buttons, has struck gold,” Towne concluded.

 Meanwhile Fink and Ditzler note that “occasionally, whimsical styles” were introduced to the consumer both immediately before and immediately after the war years. They point out the arrival of molded wood and colorful Bakelite during the 1940s and 1950s, and Lucite buttons later in the 1950s.

 What truly changed the nature of buttons in the second half of the 20th century, according to the two authors and other researchers, was the washing machine. The basic plain and flat plastic button more than met the need for an enduring button which could stand the stress of the electric-powered washer. Buttons of materials, typically reserved for clothing which needed special cleaning, grew more and more scarce.

 Today the range and nature of buttons from the past for the curious collector is vast.

“A sound formula for judging a button’s value is to study its age, size, condition, subject matter and material,” observes Claire Garrity in the preface of the fourth edition of The Collector’s Encyclopedia of Buttons by Sally Luscomb.

 “As with any item,” concludes Garrity. “the buyer must know what to look for in making a good (button) purchase.”