Button, Button, Who's Got the Button?

Well, I've got a few of them.  I am quite certain there are zillions of real button collectors out there that make my collection look like a pittance.  Still, I do like buttons.  I keep them in jars sorted by type, size, or color on my sewing room window sills - which proves I'm not a real collector.  A real collector keeps her buttons carefully attached to an identification card and not smashing around on top of each other in a jar in the direct light of a window.

 

And this doesn't include the buttons I haven't sorted into these jars that are still in tins and ziploc bags hidden in the depths of my sewing room.  Buttons are somewhat indestructible units of clothing and all have a story to tell.

Sweet little calico or china buttons

Wooden buttons

Pink buttons

Turquoise colored buttons

Clear glass buttons

Victorian shoe buttons

Cloth covered buttons

Buttons with jewels

Pearl buttons - I've got jars of pearl buttons all sorted by size.  Some are as small as baby teeth and the biggest one is three inches across! 

Mother-of-pearl buttons are beautiful in their infinite shapes and carvings - and they're cool and pearly.  Some people call them shell buttons - because they were made from freshwater shells.

As a matter of fact, a big name in buttons has always been Lansing.  The Lansing Button Company was founded in 1896 in Lansing, Iowa on the Mississippi River.  My dad's side of the family had a farm high on a hill in Lansing for about a hundred years.  I used to visit there when I was a kid.  I remember one time hearing my great Uncle Art talk about how when he was young and could walk down by the Mississippi and the river banks would be littered with clam shells stamped with circle holes.

Two buttons were stamped from this half of the clam shell.

There were other button companies along the Mississippi in Iowa.  Here's a button card from the Wessels Button Company in Muscatine decorated with lily pads, egret, waterall and other river scenes.

Another card decorated with a river scene.  I think this one actually depicts the button cutters harvesting the clams.

  Love the sweet drawings on the Crown button cards.

Navy colored mother-of-pearl buttons.  Reminds me of when my sister was a Blue Bird.  Wasn't that a part of Campfire Girls???  Huh?  Why do I remember that?

A demure young lady takes a walk on the beach with a dapper young man in... a long sleeved button down shirt with some kind of snazzy waistband, shorts and boots?

These are itty-bitty.  Who could button them?

OK, I could just keep going and going on buttons, but I'll end with some of my favorites sitting on a one inch ribbon - a few of the big, loud divas.