He just doesn't get it ...

Buttons, that is ... my fascination with them, my love of them, the fact that on Friday I spent an entire evening gazing at them, sorting them and carding them up.  I check them over, look for a maker's mark, constantly amazed by the sheer variety of materials used to make them. 

  In the early history of buttons staggering sums of money were spent on them.  Magnificent artisan made examples were created for the aristocracy and artists commissioned to make buttons for royalty.  Buttons have been found buried with prized jewellery and were bequeathed in wills.

For the common man, buttons were made from cloth, wood, bone and leather.  Your buttons told society where you ranked on the social ladder.

I like to display and sell sets of buttons on vintage cards.

I love these old cards.  They are from a game called 'Sum-it'.

Big ones and little ones.

Wood, pewter, brass, papier mache, ivory, silver, gilt, rubber, bakelite, shell, china, glass, linen, plastic, beds, celluloid, horn, vegetable ivory (which is neither vegetable or ivory but actually a nut from a South American palm tree) ... and more.  Activities of the time often depicted on buttons like little history books.

I love old buckles too.

I say to my Mr, "look at the work that has gone into this button, look at the design.  Oh, this one has come from Paris". 

He still doesn't get it ...