Beutron Tub Buttons

Walter Lance established the Walter Lance & Co Clothing Emporium in Crown Street, Woollongong in 1889. The store traded until sold in 1960 to David Jones. Below is an advertisement for the store from 1946.

South Coast Times and Wollongong Argus (NSW ), 13th September 1946 page 7.

Below this main illustration was advertising for handbags, fancy work, belts and tub-buttons:

Tub buttons were only advertised in Australian newspapers between 1945-49. I wondered if the buttons below also dated from that period:

The newspaper pasted to the rear of the cards (to allow the cards to be cut up for the customer) tells another story. The movies named all date from 1955 and 1956.

Therefore the buttons were sold from 1956 or later (depending when the movies were released in Australia). Strange that the decade-old terminology was reused.

The spiel on the back of “unpasted” cards declares they were introduced at popular request. Perhaps some customers were questioning the washability of the Opal-Glo buttons that were the Beutron mainstay at that time? The quote of “High Fashion at Low Cost” was used by Twinprufe  and General Plastics for their cross promotion of matching wool and buttons dating in 1953. I think it was deliberately cheeky for G.Herring to re-use the phrasing of their arch-rivals!

For all comments or queries, please use the Contact page.