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Articles
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| Pewter Buttons |
| Vegetable Ivory moves into the 21st Century |
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| Table of Contents |
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| Pewter Buttons |
| Vegetable Ivory moves into the 21st Century |
| Pewter Buttons... by Marianna Cochran |
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In 1473, the London Guild of pewter makers was established, and given the right to assay pewter wares, which included vases, hammered table wares, badges, toys, rings and buttons. During the Revolutionary War in America, bullets were in short supply, and many American women made bullets from worn out pewter utensils. About 1790 the Grilley brothers, Henry, Samuel and Silas started making metal buttons. About 1800 the Grilley brothers perfected a new method for a wire shank made of brass or steel instead of a self shank. They were the first to start a factory for the sole purpose of making buttons. This shank is a distinguishing feature of a hard white button.
During this period, itinerant peddlers carried button molds to cast buttons for people in far-flung settlements. US Presidents William Harrison and Zachary Taylor are known to have worn pewter buttons, as did Sam Houston.
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Buttons were rarely uniform for soldiers during the Revolutionary War, when uniforms were often ragtag. By the war of 1812, however, the U.S. needed pewter buttons for soldiers. Dies and drop presses were used rather than molds which only made a few buttons at a time.
The early 1800s, to about 1830, was the height of popularity for the hard white pewter buttons. Soon after, inexpensive brass buttons became more fashionable, and the flourishing pewter industry began to fade. The pewter buttons in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries were for men only. Women began wearing pewter only around the time of the U.S. Civil War.
Buttons with higher quantities of lead (about 25 percent) will leave a pencil-like mark on paper. Hard white buttons have less lead, and won’t leave such a mark.
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Thank you to Marianna Cochran, Treasurer of the Martha Washington Button Club, and member of the National Button Society. -- ed.
| Vegetable Ivory moves into the 21st Century... by Cecile T. Kohrs |
Actually, the ships travelled from Europe to South America, and after delivering goods there, took the Tagua nuts as ballast. Then the ships went to Africa, traded more, and went back to Europe. It wasn’t until around 1880 that the nuts were commonly known to grow on tall, palm-like trees along the northwestern coast of South America.
Large naturally occuring groves of Tagua trees grow and spread. The nuts grow in a cluster, about the size of a large coconut. When that cluster falls, animals (both wild and domestic cows) eat the bark, and the smaller nuts are still encased in a hard shell. These are gathered, then dried, and then the outer layer is peeled or chopped off. The dried, inedible "meat" of the nut is rock hard, and the density and soft white color give it it's common name, "Vegetable Ivory." At that point the nuts cut into slices, then the desired shapes are cut. The pieces were dyed, then drilled (for sew-through buttons) or given final decorative cuts. Today, they are cut, then dyed last of all, so the pale ivory color doesn't show through in the holes.
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In America, vegetable ivory buttons were make in New York, near Rochester, by German immigrants. The nuts were even used for military buttons during World War I, until soldiers in the trenches saw rats eating the buttons from uniforms.
The inexpensive, plentiful nuts were no competition for cheap plastics that came out after the 1930s. So the tagua nuts lost their value. But today, with the increasing intrest in the environment and preserving the rainforest, the Nature Conservancy has been involved in revitalizing interest in these unusal, inedible nuts.
Launched in the United States, the "Tagua Initiative" combines the marketing power of the US with communities through rainforest areas of northwestern South America. The Tagua Initiative organizes collectives in South America, shepherds the nuts through the cutting process, and encourages designers and companies thoughout the fashion industry to use these buttons. Some large catelog companies and well known designers are using the buttons on garments to show their support of environmental concerns.
Today, while button collectors can find antigue Vegetable Ivory buttons, they can also head to fine fabric stores for modern tagua buttons. These are more plain than the older buttons, though today, more laser carving is being done on the buttons.