A new button will be posted on the Home page once per month.
Click on the photo to enlarge.

COMPOSITION & OTHER ODD BUTTONS

Our August meeting topic is essentially about the mystery of what is a Composition Button.  That is what materials they may actually have been made from.  It is sometimes very hard to work out so the discussion and examples shown will help us all.  Please bring along any buttons that may be puzzling you.  Composition buttons form a “collectible” group, like plastics, vegetable ivory etc..

Composition buttons were made during a time when there was a shortage of the more traditional materials like shell, glass, most metals and many of the plastics, particularly during and after World War II.

To replace this shortage of material other methods were devised using wood, plaster of Paris, and some post war scrap material like Perspex from aeroplane cockpit canopies..  Some composition buttons were also made by small companies and hobbyists.

It will be a very useful “learning” meeting.

The first button is known as a “whistle” button with a single hole in the top and two holes on the reverse.  It is made from a mix of materials and has various shell pearl inserts – it is the oldest button pictured.

The painted sailors are made from wood, maybe masonite, and hand painted.

The fox head is moulded from brown clay, and the two green doves are moulded from white clay, both have shanks cut through the material.  These two buttons may turn out not to be Composition buttons!!