OK, gang. Today’s topic: buttons!

Not push buttons. Not campaign buttons. Not even Bachelor Buttons.

Nope. We’re talking honest-to-goodness button buttons. The kind without which your shirt would be flapping open and your overcoat blowing in the wind.
Those kind of buttons have been with us since ancient times. Buttons have been dug up on archeological expeditions in Egypt and Greece. Sculptures and coins dating back to the eighth century depict personages tidily buttoned up at neck and sleeve. Paintings from the Renaissance onward show their subjects in garments fashionably festooned with buttons.

Once a button served its utilitarian purpose, it was artistry’s turn. Over the centuries, a parade of possibilities has captivated button-makers and button-wearers. Among the many media employed in button creation: silver, steel, copper, brass, pewter, ivory, horn, wood, porcelain, china, ceramic, glass, carved pearl, shell, cloth, leather, and such 20th-century latecomers as celluloid, Bakelite, plastic, Lucite, and rubber. Some buttons were studded with, or formed from, real or rhinestone gems. Others featured enameled designs or reverse paintings. Sometimes the button illustrations were embroidered or done on paper, ivory, or silk, then captured under glass. Until the dawn of the Industrial Age, buttons were hand-made, fragile, and costly.

In the 1700s, buttons were a man’s game. Anything that could be buttoned was. There were decorative buttons of all sizes on waistcoats, cloaks, sleeves, and pockets. By the mid-1800s, though, men’s clothing had become less flamboyant, and ladies ruled button fashion. Thanks to mass manufacturing, extravagantly-styled buttons came within reach of almost every pocketbook.

Particularly popular were “picture” buttons, many of stamped metal, celebrating a variety of subjects. Among them: children, animals, birds, insects, angels, flowers, sporting activities, and characters from favorite stories and fables.

Fashion trends of the time were often dictated by the doings of the famous. After Queen Victoria’s husband died in 1861, her entire wardrobe, including buttons, was transformed overnight to unrelieved black. Victorian fashionistas quickly embraced that idea, and “Jet” buttons, originally fabricated from fossilized driftwood, but later from less expensive black glass, became the rage.

With the 20th century introduction of plastics, buttons could be created in almost any shape, and were. Why settle for a button with just a painting of a horse on it? If you loved horses, the winning ticket was a button which recreated a horse in full gallop.

For the beginning “button-eer,” the question is: where to start? For some collectors, the passion begins with a search for buttons just like the ones that populated Grandma’s sewing basket. For others, it’s a theme. You like dogs, and you like buttons. What you’re on the hunt for is an easy choice. Some folks are into the material used: if you adore Bakelite, but your jewelry box is already stuffed with Bakelite bracelets, the next step might be Bakelite buttons.