Researching historical Australian plastic manufacturers, I was reading up about Duperite again. I went back to my bakelite AMF buttons and realised that a couple of them were branded with the Duperite logo on the back.
Here are some Beauclaire buttons,
some Coronet ‘Moonglow’ type buttons and the best condition Donald I have purchased so far.
Below are some Leda and Beauclaire cards. To any sellers out there… please don’t put sticky tape on the front of vintage cards/buttons. Just don’t!
Carol’s been buying more buttons (Carol’s always buying more buttons). She’s found a button that will make military buttons drool…another “unofficial” Rising Sun button. Eat your heart out Tony!
Here’s some new tailor’s buttons:
R.Finch, Beechworth:
Richard Finch (1830-1910) was one of the earliest settlers of Beechworth. He came to Victoria in 1854, lured by the gold rush. He would set up as a clothier and tailor in Ford Street, later joined by his sons. After his retirement in 1902 his sons to continued the business.
Ovens and Murray Advertiser, 12th October 1901.
Casben Productions Ltd: Sydney.
Casben productions made swim shorts, shorts, and sportswear from around 1946 to approx 1962. It was (or became) a subsidary of Whitmont shirt company. The Company was named after Wilfred Casben, who was also involved with other clothing firms.
Australian Women’s Weekly, 1951
Here’s some more of Jean’s collection:
Roger Berry:
and a couple of New Zealand cards in my collection.
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Jean has been back in touch. Some times ago she bought up some old stock from a closed Brisbane haberdashery shop (so don’t think she’s to blame for the dust!). I’m going to start sharing some of her collection with you. More tomorrow!
Sunup: A mystery company!
Cygnet: Possibly merged with Walkers.
Sorry I’ve been a little quite later, but I’m writing a book. Anyway, carol’s sent us some new cute Aussie animals.
New finds:
The Woolies buttons date from 1957-1966.
? mid-late 1970’s Astors.
And now (drum roll please), a delightful late 1930’s casein cockatoo!
New finds:
Beutrons from the 1950’s through to circa 1970.
The Originals are black glass with a silver coat on top.
The Delphi card dates from 1966 with the change to decimal currency. By this stage both Delphi and Leda had been merged with Beauclaire, and in turn absorbed into Beutron.
New finds:
3 lovely Beauclaire buckles.
3 Marquis brand canisters. Made by Commonwealth Moulding Pty Ltd circa 1950.
Lots of new finds!
My first Landico buttons. They are solid metal with a bit of weight to them.
Marie Gardner pottery buttons.
Small (aprox.13mm) plain gold buttons from Stokes Melbourne.
Embassy circa early 1970’s.
Beutron circa 1950.
Beutron from 1950’s through to 70’s.
Leda, Astra (?misspelling of Astor..it’s on the same card), Rex and possible early General Plastics pre 1951.
I‘ve altered a couple of pages of this blog. One page, on the suggestion of Debora Zinn, has been changed from “Wyeth, Besemers & Co” only, to “Covered Buttons” in general, and now includes information previously scattered over several pages.
The “Pre-Federation” page has also been updated. I was under the erroneous impression that the marking of some buttons as “British Made”, despite the inclusion name of an Australian tailor or company, reflected that idea of “Imperial/Commonwealth Preference”. (This was the philosophy/practice in trade and commerce of supporting Britain first, the Commonwealth second, then non-Commonwealth third.) However, it appears that if a large enough quantity of buttons was ordered, British button makers were happy to backmark the buttons with the Australian company/tailor’s name rather than their own name.
This leaves me with the issue of Beutron. An early advertisement mentioned “English Beutron Buttons”, and early “Wash Buttons” had “British Made” printed on the cards.
Daily Mercury (Mackay,Qld) 11th November 1946.
This was confusing as G.Herring claimed that all their plastic buttons were made in Australia.
So either, G.Herring felt proud of being “British” (this was just after WW2), or the above claims aren’t entirely true! Possibly in 1946 the company needed to import plastic buttons temporarily until their own production was ramped up after war time shortages.
Does anyone know?