Articles

Here, Oberon, King of the Fairies, administers a potion to Titania, his queen, who has been bewitched into loving a man with an ass’s head. From William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Just why fairies appeared on the scene is equally difficult to say. They may have emerged when people attributed human form to spirits of trees, water and other forms of nature. In another theory, they might represent gods and heroes of old who were pushed aside or even underground by the dieties of conquering peoples and so took on new forms. Or perhaps fairies evolved from stories developed by the conquerors themselves to explain vanquished groups that concealed themselves in remote, isolated places, spying on and stealing from them and occasionally abducting their women and children.

The fairy problem child, Puck, who is out cavorting all night long. From Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream.

A great deal has been written, however, about the lives of the Gentle Folk. (Popular folklore warns never to call a fairy of any species by its common name, complimentary euphemisms are safer. Though generally neutral toward humans, they are easily offended and do not easily forget slights.) Perhaps the most familiar and best-loved fairies in Western society are the group known as the "fairy people", who fall into roughly two categories: the solitary fairies and the communal fairies.

Examples of solitary fairies are leprechauns and brownies. Because the leprechaun, if caught, must reveal his buried treasure, he takes great pains to avoid human contact. In contrast, the brownie is a friendly household sprite who does many domestic chores so long as he or she is treated with respect. Communal fairies live together in tribes or nations in a fairyland often ruled by a king and/or queen and include: elves, tiny, delicate creatures who nestle in flowers & leaves and dance on the grass; dwarfs, excellent smiths and craftsmen dwelling in underground kingdoms who produce swords and spears with magical qualities; and pixies, who enjoy playing tricks on humans and especially relish leading travelers astray. All communal fairies adore music and dancing and hold lavish feasts and festivals marked by grand pageantry and exotic costumes.

Time for a chat between this Gnome and Water Sprite. Original tint.

Beliefs about fairies burgeoned during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, partly in reaction to the social atmosphere of the Age or Reason, with its emphasis on modernity and industry. Fairy lore became very popular in literature and art, especially in the work of Victorian painters such as Arthur Rackham, Joseph Noel Paton, John Anster Fitzgerald, Richard Dadd and others who bring the fairy world to life so vividly and charmingly. Their delightful paintings are sure to enchant those who love the little people in all their myriad forms.

Since the dawn of time and in every part of the world, fairies have been part of our collective consciousness, from Greek nymphs to Arabian jinn to Irish leprechauns. Often they are believed to be tiny, magical beings from parallel realms who reveal themselves to mortals only rarely.

Miscommunication, Misunderstandings, and the Tingue that Started it... by Cecile T. Kohrs

Ask three people to prounounce "Tingue" and you will likely get three pronounciations. Ask them to define a tingue button, and you might get four opinions. Which isn’t surprising, since this rare button type is a product of miscommuniction and curiosity.

Most people believe the Tingue button is named for a New York senator who, in 1886 offered to pay three women $50 for a charm string of 2,700 buttons. It’s thought that these buttons were the ones most plentiful on the hundreds of strings of buttons he received. However, in making his offer, Senator Tingue specified that all the buttons submitted to him were to have shanks, and Tingue buttons are self-shank buttons. Perhaps that, too, is an example of the miscommunication that haunts these rarities.

However the name arose, the button is an interesting example of creative engineering from the mid 1800s, and this unusual design has kept people looking for more of these elusive buttons. It is a glass button, either clear or opaque, at the base. Then, there is a layer of thin foil. Above this, there is a layer of SPECIAL glass...clear, until you get to the top 1/16th of an inch, where the is another color, usually red, though sometimes blue or green.

From the side, then, it looks like three pieces of glass: The base, clear, and the top very thin colored glass. But the very thin layer is actually part of the clear layer, and is described as a "flash" of color in some books, including the Collector’s Encyclopedia of Buttons by Sally Luscomb.

Buttons courtesy of Dr. Stefan Schiff.

These odd, somewhat lumpy buttons come in a variety of sizes, from diminutive to mediums, though most are small. There are also some shaped like acorns, which are a nice variety as well. Prices on these button runs generally from $60 to $100, though of course, this range depends on the quality (these are fragile buttons which usually have nicks), size, color, and the region where they are offered for sale.

There continues to be a discussion on the Button Bytes newsgroup about whether the foil was always square or rectangular, or whether it may have been shaped in a star design. That discussion will have to continue, as Senator Tingue is not able to explain...or filibuster!

Pearly Queen doll inspired by London's Street Nobility...  by Mary Gorham

The following article originally appeared in the January 19, l998 edition of AntiqueWeek, and the portion of interest to button collectors is reprinted with their permission. How buttons are used, and have been through the years is a matter of keen interest to some collectors... -- ed.

Of all the unusual guilds in London, the quaintest is that of the Pearlies. They go back to the 1880s. They began as the street vendors during the reign of Queen Victoria. The story of the "first" Pearly usually centers on a Cockney lad who decided to add a "flash" to the bottom of his bell-bottomed trousers. A "flash" is a single line of buttons, about seven in number, sewn vertically on the piped seam of the pants just above the hem. At every step, the buttons struck the pavement, focusing attention on this dandy dresser.

The London street vendors needed to attract attention, because; following the Industrial Revolution in England, times were hard and men, women and children took to the streets to earn a living. They sold everything they could find at a low price, including food, fly papers, matches and flowers. Each vendor had a stall of his own; and, rivalry between vendors began to escalate. The few policemen in the area had trouble breaking up the fights - and, clearly, someone had to arbitrate. The most successful street vendors were called costermongers; and they were considered men of substance. By 1904, they began to organize.

One family from each borough was picked to protect the interests of the rest of the borough from usurpers. These special families became the Pearly Kings and Queens. Henry Croft is credited with founding the Pearlies. He spent his early years in an orphanage and his lack of education kept him from holding many well paying jobs. He worked as a street sweeper and rat catcher.

During this time in London, a group of young costermongers had been adding very specific "flash" to their clothing: seven pearl buttons on their pants, four across their coats and four on their caps. Henry Croft began dressing this way and was soon collecting pennies from curious bystanders. Before long he received requests from hospitals and churches to raise money. Henry asked the special families, heading up each of the 28 London boroughs, to help him.

They agreed, and the Pearlies began to raise money for many different London charities, adding hundreds more buttons to their outfits as the years went by.

Some Pearly families represent dynasties that go back five or more generations. Kings, Queens, Princes and Princesses are all entitled to wear pearl buttons; and, they can sew them in any pattern they choose. One Pearly Queen is quoted as saying: "The suits themselves may be handed down from one generation to another, if they remain fresh. But, more likely, the buttons will be reused to make another garment." As many as 40,000 buttons are sewn on the Pearly Queen outfits. They also wear broad hats trimmed with enormous plumes of brilliantly colored ostrich feathers.

The Pearly King's jackets may weigh up to 60 pounds and hold as many as 80,000 pearl buttons. Blocked out in an artistic design on the back of the coat is the name of the borough the King represents.

Once a year, the Pearlies get together for a huge celebration. They meet at St. Martin in the Fields Church in Trafalgar Square. Not only are the Pearly Kings and Queens in attendance, but Pearly babies and even Pearly dogs! Each king brings baskets of food and flowers to be given to his favorite charity. They crown the vicar an honorary Pearly King for the day, and he wears a stole of pearl buttons. Mother-of-pearl buttons are now harder to find; so, the Pearlies recycle their buttons. They refuse to wear plastic buttons.

Henry Croft will never be forgotten by the Pearlies. He was only 5 feet 2 inches tall. A statue, exactly that size, is now standing over his grave at St. Pancrass Cemetery in Finchley, England. His statue includes a suit and top hat completely covered with buttons. The inscription reads: "The Original 'Pearly King'." The monument was erected from funds provided by the many London hospitals who received money from the Pearlies. It is said that: "The Pearlies have the glorious gift of making people laugh as they reach for their purses - to give to charity."

This article appears courtesy of AntiqueWeek, which has extended an offer of a free four-week trial subscription to BBLight readers. Just request it from their web page.

Special thanks also to Sallie Gibson, who saw the article, and obtained permission for BBLight to bring this to button collectors. -- ed.

The following story was dictated to me in 1990 by my four year old daughter and my six year old son. I transcribed it in their own words, so it isn't in perfect format, but it is in perfect content. Hope you will bear with this little tale, but I thought it might be appropriate to share it with other button collectors on this Valentine's Day. -- Linda Kent.

Little did the kids know that the cookies were magic cookies. But the magic could only work on Valentine's Day. The kids had to write a Valentine's Day card to their Gran and Granpa Fritz. They did it as quick as a snap thanks to the magic in the cookies. Their rooms were very messy but thanks to the magic cookies they could clean their rooms as fast as a wink. Now their Mom did not have to give away any of their toys because everything was nice and neat.

The magic lasted for the whole of Valentine's Day and then they found a crystal. They wanted to put the crystal into a museum but they had to keep it because it was pretty and expensive. Their mother had to go to the bank and the children said, "We know what Mom wants." So they bought five little boxes of buttons in trade for the crystal. When their mother got home, she opened all the button boxes and said, "Who got me all of these buttons?" "They are all for you," said the children. The little boy and girl loved their mother very much and she loved them.

Their mother said she had to go to a button auction. "Thank you for the buttons," said the mother and she gave the children a treat of special candy. It was milkshake candy. She sold $15.00 worth of buttons at the button auction. The whole family was happy. Everybody celebrated the kids for Valentine's Day.