Was this from a souvenir garment?
‘Syd’ was one of 3 mascots for the 2000 Olympics.
Images used with kind permission. This has the “skewered roo” buttons.
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I have just received this design in 3 sizes and 6 colours. They date 1966-8.
and several other styles from the same era.
Astor Buttons Pty Ltd only lasted from 1983-84. However, the parent company, originally Astor Base metals Pty Ltd, are still running as family based business “Astor Industries” as a manufacturer of injection-moulded plastic components.
Government Gazette, 10th January 1984 page 102.
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A cut down card. The full card shows a woman from the back looking at her washing drying on the line. the buttons are sewn over the “washing”.
From the 1930s advertising referred to materials as being able to withstand “constant tubbing”. The first references to “Tub Buttons”, as the “only buttons that can be boiled” started in 1945.
Daily Mercury (Mackay, Qld), 28th August 1945 page 4. The brand is not labelled.
“English Beutron Wash Buttons” were advertised from the following year. This advertisement dating from 1950 actually shows this design of card!
The Sun (Sydney), 2nd February 1950 page 12.
Although dating later (1960s verses 1950s), the Opal-Glo buttons on the right are still made from casein, as were the the original versions of this brand. From their introduction in 1949 through to the early 1960s when the brand was retired, the majority of “Opal-Glo” buttons were made of casein.
Polyester buttons, like the card on the left, were being produced in Australia in 1956-7, although needing tariffs to maintain competitiveness with imported items. The proportion of polyester buttons being made locally at that time was only 0.05 percent compared with the volume of casein buttons made here. This would soon change, with greater proportions of polyester buttons appearing on Australian made cards of buttons as the 1960s progressed.
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The name “E.Walker & Son” dates from 1954, but these buttons have decimal (post Feb 1966) prices. Although there is evidence that some of “Walkers” buttons were manufactured by D. C. Quinn in Sydney, they also imported stock.
E. Walker was Ernest Richard Walker (c.1886-1968) and his son was (unimaginatively) Richard Ernest Walker (1922- ).
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A strip of cardboard is threaded over the buckle, and taped on the reverse side. They sold for 10½ pennies in 1952.
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Late 1940s
Unknown dating
?late 1930s-1940s.
This 1970s Beutron button re-uses a 1950s Beauclaire design to make “jiggers”.
A jigger can be the inner button of a double breasted coat or jacket. It also appears to refer to a pair of linked buttons, as on this card and in the below advertising.
The West Australian (Perth), 8th July 1936 page 21. “Note the fashionable jigger button on the coat.”
The Sun (Sydney), 10th October 1948 page 31. A “pert little summer cape”, fastened at centre front with jigger buttons.
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These cards have unfortunately been trimmed, but the pink examples were branded “Delphi”, and the white, “Check”. I had spotted “Check” buttons previously, but there was no country of origin printed on the cards. From the example showing the same button on both a Delphi and Check card, I presume they were distributed in Australia, and, as for Delphi, may have been produced by General Plastics then by Beutron Australia, which was taking over GP at that stage.
The pricing dates these to 1966-7.
The square buttons are textured around the edge; as this is barely obvious from the front, and might catch on the button holes, it seems a strange design.
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This was a distributor of fashion accessories from 1953 until at least 1994. Accessocraft is now listed as a “prior name” of Delf Support Pty. Ltd. in Sydney.
Dun’s Gazette for NSW, 27th March 1953 page 109.
The Australian Jewish Times, 7th September 1983 page 41.
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These cards date from the 1970s.
In 1968 G. J. Coles & Coy Limited of Australia and S.S. Kresge Company (USA) jointly started to develop Kmart stores in Australia. The first store in Burwood, Victoria was opened on 30th April 1969. Kreseg would divest its stakes in Coles Myer by 1994. The Coles Group (including Kmart) has been owned by Wesfarmers since 2007.
The Broadcaster (Fairfield, NSW), 21st November 1972 page 16. “Pictured is the new K mart food supermarket. In its first three years of operatins Kmart (Australia) Limited opened 10 Kmart stores in five states.”
The Broadcaster (Fairfield, NSW), 11th June 1974 page 11.
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A Nursing Reserve was formed in 1908. The Corps formed in 1915 from civilian volunteer nurses. The lamp is probably meant to reference Florence Nightingale. Whilst the lamp she used was actually a Turkish fanoos, she is often depicted carrying a “genie lamp” (as on the Australian nursing button) or as depicted on this NZ button, and in a painting (unknown source: please let me know if you can) as seen below.
Left: National Army Museum: Florence’s fanoos, a paper lamp.
Dominion, 3rd April 1915, page 6.
The Corps is an officer only corps that works along with the medical and dental corps in health care. Until 1945 it was only a part-time formation, except during periods of war.
The button shows a Tui bird on a perch. The Tui is a “boisterous” NZ native honeyeater.
In 1940 the Women’s War Service Auxillary was formed. This was the forerunner of the Women’s Army Auxillary Corps formed in 1942, which in turn became the New Zealand Women’s Royal Army Corps in 1948, receiving the Royal prefix in 1952. it was disbanded in 1977, when women were allowed to serve along side men in the New Zealand military.
The New Zealand Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (RNZEME) took over duties from other units in 1946, receiving the Royal prefix in 1947. it was amalgamated along with the ordnance and transport corps into the RNZA Logistic Regiment in 1996.
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