In my recent post about my collections I was about to launch into photos of my button hoard when I realised the scale of it. I've subsequently started to have a clear out and tidy up of my things and have made a resolution to use or throw away the mountain of things I have that I never use (.... famous last words) Anyway, along with a few jars of colour co-ordinated buttons I have these three tins and it reminded me that my collection was added to a couple of years ago when I inherited my Great Aunt Lilla's sewing things. Along with the hundreds (yes, true) of dress patterns she left I also have her button tins. The old Kodak tin is full of black buttons and nothing else but black buttons as Lilla worked in a factory making police uniforms. As she was 96 when she passed away you can imagine how old they are. I can even remember Lucky Number chocolates as a child so want to keep that tin regardless of whether it has buttons in it or not. The Quality Street tin was inherited when my Mum passed away and the box below belonged to my Nana before it passed via Mum to me.
It made me think that most button hoards probably start this way by being passed down the generations. In a previous sort out, when I singularly failed to dispose of anything, I must have co-ordinated the buttons and decided to stash all the ones semi -attached to cards in this old box. I can't bring myself to use any of them. It's seems wrong to detach them from their home. If I could think of a way of incorporating the whole card into something that would be easier.
I have picked out a sample of my favourite ones to show you below. Some are vintage and some are new, bought just because I liked the shape or colour. The black selection shows some modern ones that I buy every time I go to Hay on Wye. There is a shop there that buys them in Nepal and brings them back to the UK but the glass ones are old. The black and gold glass buttons were bought in a junk shop about 25 years ago. At the time I broke the shank from them and made them into earrings. I used to think I was the bees knees in them. Of course they were really heavy and hurt my ears something chronic but I loved them. They've not been used as earrings now for many a year but I could never bring myself to part with them.
This lot includes some little oddities, some again that I could never part with like the lime green ones that look very 30's to me but I think the time has come to be ruthless. I am going to throw the bulk of them into a tin and take them to a charity shop or the tip. Either that or I need to use them in something or find them a home with another button obsessive out there who has an obsession worse than mine...... is that possible?
In my recent post about my collections I was about to launch into photos of my button hoard when I realised the scale of it. I've subsequently started to have a clear out and tidy up of my things and have made a resolution to use or throw away the mountain of things I have that I never use (.... famous last words) Anyway, along with a few jars of colour co-ordinated buttons I have these three tins and it reminded me that my collection was added to a couple of years ago when I inherited my Great Aunt Lilla's sewing things. Along with the hundreds (yes, true) of dress patterns she left I also have her button tins. The old Kodak tin is full of black buttons and nothing else but black buttons as Lilla worked in a factory making police uniforms. As she was 96 when she passed away you can imagine how old they are. I can even remember Lucky Number chocolates as a child so want to keep that tin regardless of whether it has buttons in it or not. The Quality Street tin was inherited when my Mum passed away and the box below belonged to my Nana before it passed via Mum to me.
It made me think that most button hoards probably start this way by being passed down the generations. In a previous sort out, when I singularly failed to dispose of anything, I must have co-ordinated the buttons and decided to stash all the ones semi -attached to cards in this old box. I can't bring myself to use any of them. It's seems wrong to detach them from their home. If I could think of a way of incorporating the whole card into something that would be easier.
I have picked out a sample of my favourite ones to show you below. Some are vintage and some are new, bought just because I liked the shape or colour. The black selection shows some modern ones that I buy every time I go to Hay on Wye. There is a shop there that buys them in Nepal and brings them back to the UK but the glass ones are old. The black and gold glass buttons were bought in a junk shop about 25 years ago. At the time I broke the shank from them and made them into earrings. I used to think I was the bees knees in them. Of course they were really heavy and hurt my ears something chronic but I loved them. They've not been used as earrings now for many a year but I could never bring myself to part with them.
This lot includes some little oddities, some again that I could never part with like the lime green ones that look very 30's to me but I think the time has come to be ruthless. I am going to throw the bulk of them into a tin and take them to a charity shop or the tip. Either that or I need to use them in something or find them a home with another button obsessive out there who has an obsession worse than mine...... is that possible?
12 comments:
The TIP! Are you ill? I get up at 5.30 on Sunday mornings looking for such treasures! Em follows.
Don't throw them away, PLEASE don't throw them away.
My favourite button of them all has to be the hand, that's really lovely.
x
Oh! the buttons, the tins, the family tales and history behind them...
OH, how I wish I lived near by...
I just adore that collection on the bottom, especially the ones that look like little ladybirds/bugs.
I inherited my mother-in-laws button jar years ago but have to say I got rid of a lot of them and whittled it down to just one tin. Then when I took up crazy patchwork I used buttons and am always on the look out for really tiny ones. I bought a tin at a flea market recently and have sorted them into different colours but I wonder why it is that however many buttons one has when you need one you never seem to have quite what you are looking for or maybe not quite enough of the ones you need? Sod's Law no doubt.
The tip? !!! Take them to a charity shop please or at least put them on Ebay. I regularly sell excess buttons on there and get anything from £3 to £15 for them. I endlessly search charity shops and car boot sales for buttons, pick out all the ones I want (most of them! - lol) and sell the rest.
Please don't even think about throwing these away. If you did take them to a charity shop, people would descend on them like locusts to use for necklaces and so on -- really trendy.
The hand button is exquisite -- I've never seen one like it.
I just love the rows of buttons all lined up.
A lovely post, thank you.
AH... someone who has a button collection to rival my own! Don't take them to the tip!!!! I never know what to do with the ones on cards either.
My Dad is the keeper of my mother's button tin, which would be hard for my sister and I to share as we both remember the treasures some must have come from my grandmother. Perhaps next time I visit I could be custodian for a while! When such things were precious of course they got from one outfit to the next. I love the little fish one - like a Pisces symbol.
I now have terminal button envy. I have stopped bidding for buttons on Ebay now, I went cold turkey on that one a while ago. Thankyou for letting me enjoy a passive button experience. XXX
Sorry .... fainted clean away when I read that buttons would be going to the tip! Isn't it funny how we're all button hoarders. I know just what you mean about not wanting to use the ones that are attached to cards...
Wow!! What a gorgeous collection, some would look great framed - far too lovely to use!! I have several tins of buttons, all sorted into colours; it took ages!!I thought I was a hoarder but you take the prize!
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