~Collectible Buttons For Sale ~ ~ Vintage and Antique ~

I've gone through my entire collection with the intent of selling most. I have many buttons for sale now, but am having trouble with my FTP file transfer. Please come back later. Thanks for visiting.

In case you're new to this site you might be interested in the following paragraphs of button collecting information, along with some show and tell buttons, some of which might end up on the "collectible buttons for sale" pages in the future.

Brief history of Collectible Buttons

Interestingly, it appears that the origin of buttons is rather obscure because of the lack of historical, written documentation. Buttons of a sort were used in Egypt at least 4,000 year ago and it's been learned that Chinese Mandarins used buttons to identify their castes and status around 2,000. The earliest documentation of buttons were ornamental, found in a grave of a Bulgarian princess about 600 BC. It has been noted that loose flowing garments worn by the ancient Egyptians, Chinese and others were secured by clasps, buckles, sashes, etc.

Many of the buttons collectors seek are those having been used as decoration on garments worn by royalty. Additionally, people of status wore beautiful buttons as trim. There have been buttons found which tell a story of travels, each button having been hand wrought by an artist, depicting various scenes.

Button Collecting,
Up Close and Personal

The National Button Society, an organization for collectors, formed in 1938. The NBS consists of members from all over the world, many of whom are dealers who come to the National Button Society Annual Show each year, open to the public, which was held last August. This coming August we'll be meeting in Portland, Oregon ! Details can be found at the National Button Society WEB SITEwhere you can learn how to join NBS as well as find links to state societies, and details for upcoming State button shows.

Besides viewing the buttons entered in competition, you'll see tables of buttons for sale. There will be buttons of all materials and sizes. Clear glass buttons are quite plentiful, as are plastic flowers. I had fun doing Button Bouquets with colorful oldbuttons as well as newly made buttons found in fabric stores.

Show and Tell

Collecting buttons became one of my passions in 1990, and perhaps you'd like to see some of the finds I've made; I call these buttons SHOW and TELL, but NOT to SELL. These buttons will give you an idea of how members of the National Button Society display our collectibles.

The bright colors of bakelite buttons caught my fancy early on, as well as did celluloid of various types. Some are not as collectible as others, so for FUN with celluloid buttons, I did THIS several years ago.

For competition, besides bakelite and celluloid buttons, I sought buttons depicting heads of men, women and children; but I soon found it difficult to concentrate on one particular topic, so I started buying buttons depicting flowers. Then art deco glass caught my eye and then colorful old glass, and on and on. Collecting buttons is very addicting. My mom collected elephant "knick-knacks", so I bought a few elephant buttons for her. Soon I couldn't help myself, so I began collecting elephant buttons for myself.

Classifying Collectible Buttons

Moonglow buttons have been very popular in the collecting world. Many different colors, surface treatment and shapes as well as some pictorials can be found. I'm not sure how the term "moonglow" came to be, but there is a way to determine the difference between an "ordinary" glass button and a moonglow button. There is a discernable, though in many instances thin, layer of clear glass over the top of the button. By holding the button by the shank and shining a pen-lite against the edge of the top, you can see the thin layer of clear glass.

It's difficult to explain here where I'm trying to give an idea of how we display and/or compete; once you attend a button show, you'll see GORGEOUS, buttons of all materials and topics, properly mounted for both competition and preservation. This example shows black glass moonglows which have their own category as opposed to moonglows of all other colors. The base of these buttons is black, the tops may be almost any color and/or combination thereof.

Studio Buttons

Artists of varied media have found that button collectors admire their work and have pleased us enormously by sharing their talent in the form of gorgeous hand-crafted buttons. These buttons are strictly for "show and tell" as I would never consider selling them. However, these artists do sell their art to anyone interested.