The best of buttons and stories from May 2017
Buttons and there depiction in 1950s ads:
Beutron Original from 1952-4. I’ve always thought this design looked like an owl!
Detail from 1954 advert
And here are a few cards …. Thanks to Helen for many of them.
The backing disks from cardigan buttons.
This dimension card was used for buckles.
Coronet card ?1940’s.
Dyed MOP buttons, mid 1960s.
1966 Leather buttons.
Leda buttons: 1950-1960’s
Beauclaire Roses in many variations.
Late 1960s.
Beutron from 1950-60’s.
Coronet disneys from 1948-1953.
The hand painted buttons are Beauclaires from the 1950s and sodern variations.
Beauclaire diamentes
The card on the left is by British company Excelsior. So cute. Similar era to the Beutron cards.
New Zealand Buttons:
Just For Fun:
Wendy has a fondness for dog buttons. The popularity for Scottish terriers depicted on buttons is in part due to Franklin D. Roosevelt’s famous dog Fala who lived from 1940-1952.
British design made/copied here?
This card was ‘Made in England’.
And this is a detail from a 1957 Beauclaire ad.
This explains why the couple of buttons of this type I own have different size holes at slightly differing angles; one must be English and the other Australian. See below.
Bright ideas:
Sunday Times (Sydney) 24th November 1912.
Examiner (Launceston).
Sydney Mail 2nd May 1934.
A plastic rubbish bin would be my dream come true!
Dress Clips:
The Sun, 11th March 1934.
As the advert above shows, they were often advertised along with buttons and buckles, as well as by jewelers alongside ear-rings and brooches. The reason for this is that they spanned from the cheaper plastic and diamente, to expensive pieces made with diamonds or maracarite set in silver or gold. Just as fancy buttons could be used as a statement to jazz up an otherwise understated dress or jacket, so were dress clips.
They were not, as is sometimes stated, an invention of post WW1 fashion (being advertised as early as 1904 in Australian newspapers), but they certainly rose to prominence then and continued in popularity through to the 1950’s when they were largely superseded by brooches. They were not (as claimed) always worn in pairs. Single pieces were also made.
The Australian Women’s Weekly, 7th April 1934.
They were, however, often worn in symmetrical pairs on opposite sides of the neckline, or upon the dress straps, as seen below in details from a department store advert from 1937.
Newcastle Sun, 4th November 1954.