Winter is coming…….brrr.
A fellow blogger has kindly ‘linked’ me on her page. If you are interested in/collect pottery. glassware, plasticware, Australiana, etc, her site is worth a look. http://www.ccretro.com
Today I received an interesting example of “sweetheart jewelry” made of 3 New Zealand Forces uniform buttons welded together into a brooch. One button was made by Stokes and Sons, Melbourne.
New tailor’s button:
Edward Hughes: Sydney
This establishment was in Erkine Street, Sydney from around 1902-13.
New uniform button:
This button was made by Stokes and Sons, Melbourne. It shows the Australian coat of arms, and came from uniforms worn by staff at Government House, Hobart.
Helen has sent me a card of Hand-made leather buttons on an Embassy card (I didn’t think Coles sold leather buttons!) and is also sharing a Terries card with us.
Fellow Victorian Button Club member (and sometimes competitor for choice buttons!) kindly allowed me to buy a rare button she found at the recent Buttonfest. It is a (probable) uniform button from the Castlemaine Fire Brigade (note the CFB marking). It is backmarked ‘W. Mockton Fitzroy’. I had previously made reference to him on the pre-federation page. I found another story referencing Walter Mockton’s tailoring business in this article from 1911.
Queensland Times 11th February 1911.
I love vintage Australian buttons, but I don’t mind if the buttons come from elsewhere when they so wonderfully depict our native fauna and flora!
The little white Koala is from Rex C. Norris, but the provenance of the others is uncertain. The kookaburra/kingfisher in the middle, as well as the small yellow penguin, are glass. The rest are plastic, possibly casein, excepting the pair of budgies which are a painted design on molded clear plastic.
Here are some new variations of Australian buttons. The 3 glass teddies were made for Beutron, as are the gold and red examples. The grey floral in the middle is a ‘Latest Fashion’ one. The dark brown at the bottom is a coronet, and so possibly is the light brown one on top.
The Sun newspaper had a lot of illustrated advertising in the 1930-1950’s for stores such as Farmer’s and Grace Bros. This particular example was from a full page advert for Grace bros. Ltd on 18th September 1932. Fashion note, Ladies, “Brass and nickle buttons in smart nautical designs are the last word in chic for all white or pastel shaded sports garments.”
This troop are additions to my family of Disney design buttons from Coronet.
These date from 1948-1953.
This menagerie will be joining my zoo of Beauclaire kiddie buttons from the 1950’s.
New finds:
General Plastics buttons
Leda from the 1950’s.
Beutron from 1950’s.
Beutron from 1950-60’s.
Woolies buttons from 1950’s.
GFD/Darian buttons by Grant Featherston.
The card on the left is by British company Excelsior. So cute. Similar era to the Beutron cards. The backs are shown below.
At the Buttonfest I found more variations of the “Beauclaire Rose”. It is amazing how many colours, finishes and designs were based around the basic rose. (The photos below include some I’ve shared before to give an idea of range).
Love the ‘Pop Art’ effect of the square mount backed by a target-like backing plate. Old Gold, Gold and Silver metallic finishes as well as many shades, including pearlised and clear, in plastic.
Here’s a group of late 1960’s Astor cards.
And some Rex Buttons from ?1950’s to 1980’s?
I’m glad to have found some Delphi and Cygnet cards. Both these companies were merged with (or had their stock bought out by) Walkers and Beauclaire.
Finally, for today: some Myer Emporium Buttons. The card is certainly a Beutron’s, re-badged for Myer. The black glass buttons have Myer paper glued over the stitching at the back to allow a larger card to be cut up without the remaining buttons falling off.
A good time was had by all at the Port Fairy Buttonfest on Saturday. I have bought so many buttons that it will take a bit to collate and share them. In the mean time: thanks to Helen and Wendy for sharing some of their own personal collections.
Wendy has a fondness for dog buttons. The popularity for Scottish terriers depicted on buttons is believed to originate to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous dog Fala who lived from 1940-1952 (see below). Fala could perform tricks, and was often seen in public and in the media along with the Roosevelts.
Thanks again, Helen!
Beauclaire diamentes
New finds:
The brown are Beutron, the pierced blue Beauclaire, and the darker blue Coronet. Love the glossy green floral buttons on the card.
New mystery:
Who or what was ALWATCO Sydney?
New Anderson’s:
New South Wales tramways uniform buttons.
Note the ‘British make’ on the back. Apparently British makers would mark the back of an order of buttons with the tailor’s name if the order was big enough!
Who was a lucky lady this Mother’s Day?
A plastic rubbish bin would be my dream come true!
Duranol Co. Pty. Ltd.
This must have been a subsidiary of J. G. Lloyd and Co. Pty. Ltd. (see the page titled ‘Unbranded, etc’) as they operated at the same address.
The Argus (Melb) 13th October 1955. In 1965 Cope Allman (Aust) Ltd took controlling ownership of this as well as J.G. Lloyd Pty. Ltd. and Modern Mouldings Pty. Ltd. These companies have been discussed previously in this blog).
As well as buttons and soap boxes, they made lovely MacRobertson and Hoadley chocolate boxes. I have one already (very useful for small buttons!).
Printed on the base.
I saw this button in an auction. It appears to show Lucite buttons, which is less common in my collection.
