Buttons have many forms of significance

Press, 26 October 1989, Page 15

Buttons have many forms of significance

One form of collecting which has not yet become obsessive in New Zealand is that of gathering buttons. Buttons of many shapes, sizes and vintage surely exist in this country and there will be several adults who remember being sat up at the kitchen table on a wet day with grandma’s button tin tipped out before them to sort and arrange.

In the United States button collecting seems to have been an organised hobby since the Depression years of the 19305. There the hobby is backed by national organisations and clubs, rather like stamp collecting here. Publications cover the various categories collected, and specialisation becomes inevitable.

There are, of course, a wide range of buttons in the museum, but they are mainly part of garments in the costume collection and not exhibited alone. In the Ballantynes shop display in the street, however, there are loose buttons as part of the haberdashery section. In the front window is a silver tray with a collection of buttons made of hand-painted ivory, mother-of-pearl, paua shell, and silver. Inside with the ribbons and smallgoods are assorted bone, shell, and covered buttons.

String collections

Buttons take many forms and are made from a range of materials. Apart from uniform or military buttons with insignia, removable decorative buttons also exist. The shop also displays a set of enamel and gilt dress ornaments in a case. This consists of a pair of hat pins, a dress buckle, and detachable buttons. “Memory strings," according

to a button collector who spoke to me in the museum recently, was a fad in the 1860 s in the United States pursued by young women. One explanation states that a young girl began a collection with a large button on a string and consisting of the most attractive buttons she could find. Members of the family and friends had all to add a button, and hopefully the string lengthened. The girl was supposed to collect — at which point Prince Charming would appear!

American collectors have for years sought out such strings — mostly incomplete — and pirated them for their collections. My informant was disappointed when I admitted to no knowledge of such a custom in New Zealand but brightened when I talked of my great-grandma’s tin. My great-grandmother had tin boxes in which she, thrifty Scotswoman, saved all attractive and functional buttons. After laundering, clothes were checked and the tins provided any needed replacements. When dressmaking, the women of the family would check through the tins, especially in the war years when the shops held little attractive stock, for Gran often had really lovely glass or metal buttons in the vast numbered sets that Edwardian blouses and tops required. It was long the custom to

cut off all useable buttons before consigning a garment to the ragbag. Habits die hard and we still have a collection of tins and bottles with categorised replacement buttons recording many years of family life.

Materials included shell

The buttons in the illustration are typical of what may be collected easily today and represent a few of the kinds found on our costume collection.

Interesting types include:— Crochet buttons: initially made by hand mainly in Ireland and France. A crochet cap was placed over wood, cardboard or cotton-stuffed moulds. They were first used in the 1880 s and became fashionable again in the 1900 s. Ball-shaped buttons known as “French knots” were popular with Parisian prostitutes in Edwardian days, which probably accounts for their lack of popularity with other women. Dorset buttons: supposed to have been invented by Abraham

Case, of Dorsetshire. With his family, he made many and a cottage industry developed. Wire rings were brought in from Birmingham and the finished buttons were sold by size — fastened as sets on cards. Thread buttons date from the mid-eight-eenth century and as well as those flat ones worked on wire and resembling cartwheels, were made on sheep-horn disks in a conical shape, of cloth covered with stitches in spider-web pattern. In Leek, Staffordshire, coloured silk was used on a flat core, and in Scotland flat oval ones were made in silk or cotton. It is likely that lacemakers made many of these old buttons. Steel buttons: many forms, some imitate marcasite and are referred to as “cut steel.” Because steel rusts easily in damp conditions, lustre glass replaced these buttons last century. Shell buttons: pearly shell buttons were mass produced in Birmingham from the early 1800 s onwards. Shell came from the Pacific, Indian Ocean, and the Red Sea. The best white shell came from Australia, Broome in particular, and this town suffered greatly when the market was stopped by war. Sew-through pearl shell has been used for decorating clothing and artifacts by various culture groups including the London costermongers with their “pearly” clothes, American Indians and many African tribes. We are not supposed to deface the • “coin of the realm," but, occasionally, buttons are found made of money. At one time coin buttons were given to young American men when they reached 21, and these were called “freedom buttons.” Collectors often specialise in one area of their chosen hobby and today’s special horn, ceramic, glass and paua shell buttons offered by our craftspeople might make a beautiful display if mounted and framed as special New Zealand buttons.

By

SHEILA LEWTHWAITE