New Finds

Opal-Glo Style 888

I was excited to find a Opal-Glo style I had not seen before, but when the partial card arrived (see below) it bore glass buttons! Presumably the card had been re-used to mount some matching buttons on. Although G. Herring did sell imported glass buttons from 1950, they were not mounted on Opal-Glo cards.

Does anyone have a card of Style 888 buttons? If so, please Contact me!

Embassy

Circa 1960. 6 pennies was the lowest pricing seen on these cards.

These cards all date post October 1967 (decimal only pricing) and before the 1971 change of logo. they are probably all made of polyester.

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Unusual Beauclaire

These are 16mm diameter casein (probably) buttons with hand-painted highlights. The only other hand detailed buttons I have on a blue and white Beauclaire card are an example of the ‘Tiny Tots’ fish. Indeed, out of all the buttons made by General Plastics the Tiny Tots fish, duck, elephant and rabbit were the exception, until now. They are similar to, but not the same as some Coronet branded buttons. Could O. C. Rheuben & Co (predecessor to General Plastics) have supplied Coronet during the 1940s?

Buttons in the News

The Daily Mirror (Sydney), 7th July 1949 page 18.For any comment or question, please use the Contact page.

New Finds

These were imported. I am puzzled that they were not mounted on ‘Beutron Originals’ cards, as most of the glass buttons they sold were. These yellow cards were meant to be for Opal-Glo (i.e. casein plastic) buttons, as below.

Early 1970s.

Mid 1970s.

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Famous Collector

All the button collector’s I know are used to the incredulous looks and “You collect buttons?” question, with doubts about our sanity quite evident. Well, Bertie (King Edward from 1901-1911) was a serious fan of insignia, including buttons. If it was good enough for the King, who can cast assertions upon us?

Lithgow Mercury (NSW), 5th November 1909 page 7.

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In the Pink, again

G. Herring

These date from 1949 to possibly the mid 1950s, so co-incided with the promoted ‘All Purpose Button’ cards with added thread. Do you think that mixing 2 shades of pink on the same card was a mistake?

In 1949 when these cards were introduced there was no pricing printed on them. from October 1951-March 1952, then also from April 1954- 1957 the price was 1’3.

Originals dated from 1950-1959. The card on the right was one of several types that replaced the “All Purpose” style from 1960.

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In the Pink

General Plastics

The card on the left is part of a larger card that could be cut into four sections for individual sale in the mid 1950s. The small remnant on the right is from a short lived cross-promotion with Twinprufe wool during 1953-4.

A short lived style of card  circa 1957 before GP changed the branding to Leda.

D.C. Quinn

The partial card on the left dates 1952-4, before D.C. Quinn branded there buttons as ‘A Delphi Product ‘in 1954. A contract with E. Walker & Son Pty. Ltd saw the cards re-labelled Walkers in the same year.

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New Finds

Embassy

Coles sold plain small (8.8-13.8) sew-through buttons numbering 6-9 buttons. Larger buttons numbered 1-5 only. I suspect the higher number of buttons was because they were intended for shirts/blouses and needed a couple for the cuffs.

Leda, circa 1959.

Another example of imitation faceted black glass buttons. See http://www.austbuttonhistory.com/25th-june-2021/

Is this an Australian Brand?

I have seen this brand only rarely for sale in Australia.

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New Finds

Basic fish-eye buttons

The term is an old one, and somewhat misleading, as they don’t look like fish eyes at all! They are also known as cat eye, which is a better description. Cat’s Eye buttons were described in Australian newspapers in 1884. However, most sewers and collectors know the term, ‘fish eye”. The Royal Alberta Museum in Canada has a pearl fish eye button they date to the late 1800s, but no-one remembers when or where the term was coined, as described in the following article from Just Buttons magazine in November 1963.

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New Finds

Beauclaire circa 1954

Modern Miss, 1940s

Unfortunately these weren’t advertised in print, so I can’t date them with more accuracy.

Beutron Opal Glo

The card on the left ( Opal-Glo buttons although not so labelled) is c.1949, the other c.1959. There is some crumbling of the plastic on the older one, but it is 74 years old! Although the artwork had changed, the basic card shape was the same.

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 TAA Uniform buttons

As the 1960s dawned, Australia was considering buying jet planes to gradually replace the turbo-prop planes then in use.

The Canberra Times, 20th November 1962 page 12.

They were introduced into service in 1964, with TAA taking the chance to launch  modern new uniforms designed by Dominex. Dominex were clothing manufacturers, particularly for coats and suits, from the 1930s- until the late 1990s, possibly later. This uniform introduced a rectangular button with rounded corners. This design button remained in use until 1984.

Brim Medallions Pty, Ltd., Mitcham, Victoria

This firm existed from 1974. Along with Swann & Hudson, K. G. Luke, and Wheelen’s Castings they were amalgamated into J. J. Cash in the late 1980s.

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