Thanks, Gina!

I wish to extend a special thanks to my blogging friend Gina, of ginaceramics, who surprised me with the antique button that's featured in my side bar this month.

Knowing my Swiss heritage, Gina sent a button that came, long ago, from a regional Swiss costume like the ones shown below.

One of the many things that makes the antique button special is that a close inspection of the filigree work reveals that it was all handmade. I'm delighted to have it in my collection! Thanks again, Gina!

.

A Baker's Dozen for Mrs. D.

I went to my blog site Monday morning and discovered that I was the fortunate recipient of a most original and handsome suede bag, a gift from Mrs. D. of 1893 Victorian Farmhouse. She cleverly incorporated my profile portrait, as well as her signature fob with a double button. Isn't that neat?!

 There's a surprise on the inside, too!

Thank you, Mrs. D.! I will be looking forward to mail call!

Mrs. D. let me know that she was going to do this project (she'd been thinking about it for a while), so I told her that I'd reciprocate with some antique buttons. This would be a blogging "cultural exchange."

from A Girl and Her Duenna  |  Murillo  |  c. 1670  |  National Gallery of Art

For Mrs. D., I've chosen a set of twelve 19th-century steel cut buttons, above. It's rather rare to find sets like this. It comes from a generation that removed and reused buttons, so I suppose one garment wore out, and these were set aside for another.

A view of an individual button,

which is slightly cup-shaped.

To make it a baker's dozen, here's a Victorian button that has an Art Nouveau look to it. It's approximately two inches in diameter, and I believe it might be made of celluloid.

Thanks again, Mrs. D.!
.

.

Two Woodies

Regular readers of this blog know that one of my passions is collecting antique buttons. The two buttons shown here (the bottom one is also my current  "Antique Button of the Month" — seen on my sidebar) are both referred to by button collectors as "woodies." They were constructed of metal decorative designs that overlaid pieces of wood. I think these are pretty neat, but it's just as well that I have only two because I consider three of anything the start of another collection!

I'll have a new posting tomorrow.

Queen Victoria, Trendsetter

When Prince Albert died of typhoid fever in 1861 — at the tender age of 42 — Queen Victoria went into a deep depression. Then she went into seclusion and a period of mourning that lasted the remaining 40 years of her reign.

Victoria and Albert   |   Richard Hough   |   St. Martin's Press, 1996

Obsessive in her mourning, Victoria had the Windsor blue room in which Albert died photographed so that servants could better preserve it just as it was at the moment of death. For the next 40 years, hot water was brought daily to Albert's shaving stand, as though he might return at the very next moment.

internetstones.com

For the rest of her life, Queen Victoria wore black dresses and jet jewelry not unlike the handsome brooch above.

Rock and Gem   |   The Smithsonian, 2005

Jet is a form of high-carbon coal that occurs in water beds, and much of Victoria's jewelry was made from the jet found at the beach at Whitby, Yorkshire, England. For more information about jet and its interesting relationship to the Monkey Puzzle Tree, I encourage you to visit Where Five Valleys Meet and my blogging friend Rosemary's posting about Whitby, here.

The English public recognized that Victoria's mourning was excessive, and she went through periods of unpopularity because of her seclusion. The passage of time, several assassination attempts on the Queen's life, and the expansion of the British Empire under her reign softened that view.

In the process, Queen Victoria influenced the trend for long mourning periods and the wearing of black. Those unable to afford jet jewelry, or onyx, wore black glass.

I recently attended a convention of antique button collectors, where I purchased these 19th-century black glass buttons. These are all in part a natural outgrowth of Queen Victoria's mourning. They measure half an inch in diameter, or less, and all came from molds. While not as lustrous as their jet counterparts, I think the detail of their designs is exceptional.

.

The Allure of Antique Buttons

Regular readers of this blog know that one of my passions is collecting antique buttons. (You can see some of my own buttons by clicking on "The Button of the Month" on my side bar.) This past weekend, I went to a button show hosted by the Florida State Button Society. Collecting buttons has become a hugely popular hobby, and if you had seen the amazing displays that I saw, you wouldn't be a bit surprised.

Millicent Safro   |   Tender Buttons

For sheer size and glitz, the most dramatic buttons are probably those called "Victorian Jewels." These buttons usually measure 1½-2" in diameter and were once used by Victorian ladies on coats and capes.

Most dealers display their buttons on thin cardboards, like the one above. The button you choose can be easily removed from the board.

Millicent Safro   |   Tender Buttons

The show featured a lot of copper 18th-century buttons, also in the 2"-diameter range.

 

I was introduced to a style of buttons known as "Jacksonians." These were popular in the early 1800s, and were used on waistcoats. Though they were produced by different makers, they were all made from brass, had the same distinctive rims, and measured approximately ½". They were worn on civilain clothes, despite looking rather military.

Betsy Ciffone   |   Heavens to Betsy Antiques

Betsy Ciffone of Clinton, Tennessee, stores her buttons in jewel displays, and antique buttons are indeed often little gems. One of her buttons that caught my eye is the tintype portrait below. Such photographic buttons were a popular genre in the mid-1800s, although this was the first one I'd seen.

Betsy Ciffone   |   Heavens to Betsy Antiques

This is a framed display made by John C. Hepler, a tailor who started collecting in the 1850s. Mr. Hepler is famous among button collectors because in the 19th century he had the largest collection in the country, numbering over 78,000!

Jerry DeHay   |   The Buttonpusher

Uniform buttons, and not just military ones, are popular with men. The buttons above are from livery, the uniforms of servants. Families of nobility and wealth would have personalized buttons made with their own family crests.

Button dealers buy large collections and often have lesser buttons in quantity. Some will put their excess in a large tray and sell them for a flat price. They call such trays "pokes," and this is what a one-dollar poke looks like.

I'm a neophyte at all this, but I'm having fun. I'll be sharing my purchases with you each month on the side bar, but in the meantime, here's a little sub-grouping of Victorian buttons I've collected that appeals to my love of things Neoclassic. I call this grouping "gods and heroes."

.