The Three Wise Kangaroos wish you a safe and prosperous New Year!

and while we are smiling at all things kitsch and kangaroo themed …

Hope you all had a good Christmas.  I did.  Hubby put up some shelving for my other collection (vintage plastic cannisters and kitchenali from the 1940-60s) so now they are nicely displayed. Most collectors collect more than one thing, don’t they?

Perhaps the coming new year is a time to cast a critical eye over our treasures. Are our collection lacking focus?  Are we hording rather than truly collecting?  My button collecting was a bit haphazard to begin with,  and I may well divest some to make room for my favourites.

Latest finds:

These look like they are from the same firm that sold “Fashionable Buttons’ as the red and silver printed stripes are similar (see the page for Unbranded/generic examples).  The buttons are glass, however, so they weren’t made locally.

Also; some late 1960s-early 1970s Woolies and some 1970-?80s Embassy cards.

Merry Christmas to my fellow collectors!  Hope you all get that elusive piece for your collection.

New finds:

Most of these are Beutrons. The Bigger green ones are another colour variation of a Coronet style I’ve featured before.

Late 1960’s.

‘Pearlised’ finish on a Beauclaire button. This type of finish tended to peel off untidily, as can be seen here with the underlying red plastic showing through.

South Australian Rifles, by A.J.Parkes

Australian Staff Corps, by Stokes and Sons.

Silly me,  I mentioned the Clematis tin and forgot to show you it.  So here it is!

Adverts for this item appeared from 1950 (when it cost 17/6) to 1957 (about 25 shilling), especially pre-Mothers day and Christmas time.

I bought an old ‘MacRobertson Clematis Assorted Chocolates’ tin containing old buttons.  Most of the buttons were nothing special,  but also inside were a couple of vintage,  double-sided advertising flyers from the late1950s.

The Pinnock Manufacturing company was floated in 1956 to manufacture Fridor sewing machines and household appliances.  Fridor sewing machines were at that time imported from Holland.  They were running into trouble by 1971 and have since been de-listed.

Fashion Patterns advertised in the Australian Women’s Weekly from 1939-1963.  You would post in your orders to your state’s distributors.

New finds: Leda buttons from 1950s and embassy button from post 1966.

New find:

A uniform button for the Commonwealth Oil Refineries company (COR) by Stokes and Sons, Melbourne.

Thanks to Wikipedia:  The Commonwealth Oil Refineries ran between 1920-1952 as a joint venture by the Australian government and the Anglo-Persian Oil company.  Billy Hughes initiated the partnership.  In 1924 the first Australian refinery opened near Laverton.  The Menzies government sold their interest in 1952 to the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company,  which in 1954 become the British Petroleum Company (BP).  The brand COR was continued until 1959.

Queensland Times, 25th August 1920.

The Argus, 13th July 1923.

The Australasian, 21st July 1924.

I had a delivery of parcels today, even though it’s Sunday.  The gentleman said he wouldn’t be having a day off until after Christmas!  I know you have to ‘make hay whilst the sun shines’ but that’s tough.  It’s not like they get paid well anyway.  Back to the delivery.  I received something I have been waiting for with anticipation …. a box of Astoria Saftey Buttons direct from New Zealand.

Advertising card

Beutron sold the same product as ‘Cardigan Buttons’ in 1950-51.

From Lois: cardigan buttons with the instruction on the back.

This was a whole box of them, with cardboard inserts to set the box up for counter-top display.

Here are a selection of the variety the box contained:

You might notice that the card is the same as that used at one stage by Beauclaire.  Astoria was a brand name used by the NZ branch of General Plastics.  Strange, a Beauclaire card with a Beutron product.  Could this be after the 1957 merger? Did one company copy the idea from the other?

As I have been collecting Aussie buttons for awhile I don’t always have something new to share with you all. Please feel free to help out with your own collections.

New finds:

A few loose buttons:

Beauclaires, and a red Beutron.

Detail from a 1956 Beauclaire advert showing the button on the left.