Author Archives: admin

7th June 2023

Branded Buttons

Goondiwindi Cotton

This is an Australian based, family clothing business specialising in the use of cotton, linen and merino wool for their products.They started in 1989. See https://goondiwindicotton.com.au/pages/our-story

From Building Partnerships (Australia Post), 29 June 2002 page 23.

Possible Fashion brand?

This looks like a Koori design. Does anyone recognise the brand?

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6th June 2023

Politics and Buttons

The Argus (Melbourne), 10th March 1915 page 11

Daily Commercial News and Shipping List (Sydney), 9th August 1922 page 9.

The Telegraph (Brisbane), 17th September 1941 page 4.

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5th June 2023

South Australian Volunteers

Both these uniform buttons are for the South Australian Volunteers, which Cossum dates as 1860-1880 (my dating is 1861-1877). The puzzle is that the family tailoring firm, for many years the sole government uniform supplier, did not change their name from G. & W. Shierlaw to Shierlaw & Co until after 1890, as explained in the article below:

Chronicle (Adelaide), 28th August 1920 page 34.

However, this article was slightly inaccurate. William Shierlaw placed this notice in 1891, and also placed a new advert:

Evening Journal (Adelaide) 16th July 1891 page 4.

This doesn’t explain the dating of the white-metal button. Digging into the records further, I discovered an alternate name to the firm at the same address:

Kapunda Herald and Northern Intelligencer (SA), 6th January 1871 page 1.

There were references to Messrs Shierlaw & Co in various articles during the 1870s, so perhaps they were known colloquially by that name, even if it did not change legally until 1891.

For all comments and questions, please use the Contact page.

4th June 2023

The Red Cat strikes again!

I’ve seen this design on Beutron, Jason (British) and now Maxart branded buttons. It appears that popular designs were licensed to multiple parties.

It has a bar code and a Target store price sicker on the back.

Here is a “bag of mixed lollies”:

The green circles are early 1950s Beauclaires. The Disneys were sold on Coronet cards (1948-53). The green starfish was on a 1940s ‘Fashion Buttons’. The button that looks like electrons swirling about a nucleus is a 1950s Beutron.

Another (very hard to photograph!) Coronet button comes my way thanks to Carol. It shows the Sphinx and a palm tree.

And a couple of Beutron cards.

A 1950s and a circa 2000 Beutron card.

 

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3rd June 2023

Sydney 2000 Olympic Mascot button

Was this from a souvenir garment?

‘Syd’ was one of 3 mascots for the 2000 Olympics.

1994 Army Jacket

Images used with kind permission. This has the “skewered roo” buttons.

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2nd June 2023

Astor Buttons

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.

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

1st June 2023

Beutron

Tub Buttons

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.

Opal Glo

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.

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

31st May 2023

E. Walker & Son P/L

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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30th May 2023

Beauclaire Buttons and Buckles

A strip of cardboard is threaded over the buckle, and taped on the reverse side. They sold for 10½ pennies in 1952.

 

“Beauclaire Presents from Paris”

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29th May 2023

Pat has some more to share:

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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