Marion Weeber

I’m taking a trip to America today, with this beautiful addition to my Marion Weeber collection. She was a designer based in New York who designed high-end fashion celluloid realistics from around 1941-1950 exclusively (so claimed) for B. Blumenthal’s ‘La Mode’ brand. So what is this set of Weeber ‘Cut Fruit’ lemons doing on a B.G.E Originals card?

The below picture printed in the January 1959 National Button Bulletin, page 23, is the full set of ‘cut fruit’. The complete set was sold as one each lemon, peach, apple, lime and strawberry.

I have never seen Marion Weeber buttons on a non ‘La Mode’ card before. Looking up the entry for Bailey, Green & Edgar (B.G.E.) in my 1968 version of Sally Luscomb’s “The Collector’s Encyclopedia of Buttons”, she states that they were wholesale importers and distributors in New York City from the 1880s until dissolved around 1982. Perhaps B.G.E. bought up some excess Blumenthaal buttons for sale on their own branded “B.G.E. originals’ cards?

For any comment or question, please use the Contact page.