Button Dictionary, Page 1

A

ALPHA SHANK ...

ALUMINUM STENCIL ...

ARITA ...

A type of Japanese porcelain. Buttons are often realistics with colorful glazes. The finish generally has a dark color satin gloss rather than a shiny glaze. A wide range of subjects include the Seven Gods, animals, and flowers. Many of the square or rectangular plaques are also found set in metal jewelry findings as well as buttons.

ARTID ...

Most are small and have a color border. They are usually white and one other color, such as black or red. "Artid" is written in raised letters on the back, as is "Made in England."

AURORA ...

AUSTRIAN TINIES ...

Metal, usually two-piece buttons, never more than 1/2 inch in diameter, with a metal loop shank and usually a japanned back. Frequently, the back is cup-shaped. Two regularly found characteristics: (a) the metal loop shank, and (b) the fact that the metal trim is folded over the back. The center designs may be pearl, ivoroid, velvet, brass, blued tin, painted tin, fabric, etc.. These buttons were made between approximately 1885 and 1914.

B

BAKELITE ...

An early plastic, the resin is both cast phenolic and molded, made from the 1920s up to the 1950s... May be formed or cut, can have escutcheons, or have inlays.

BASSE-TAILLE ...

See ENAMEL.

BIRD'S EGG ...

Glass buttons that have a speckled overlay that looks like a bird's egg.

BONE ...

Buttons of the 18th and early 19th Century were mostly five holes, although there were two hole (usually on larger buttons than those of the late 19th Century), three holes, four holes, pinshanks, and swagged in shanks used as well. The most common of that era were the five hole. Two hole and three hole are scarce. Swagged in shanks were large loops and plates and/or early large plated, 4 way hump or box shanks. Many pinshank bone buttons were contemporary with Colonial Pearls. Extremely uncommon were 1 hole buttons used with a rawhide or gut strip or a round "bead" to hold the button to the fabric or hide used for clothing. These 1 hole buttons can predate the 1700s. Also, the one-hole buttons were also used as forms, covered with fabric or thread in elaborate designs, and sewn onto clothing similar to a pad-back. The two hole underwear buttons and four hole buttons were made during the last half of the 19th Century, thus making them the only ones authentic to the Civil War. These bone buttons were made to replace the earlier china and glass underware buttons of the mid 19th Century. Bone (and pearl) buttons were sold on strings and some still survive intact. The center hole in the five hole buttons was likely what held the button in place while the others were drilled by hand or by crude machines. On some buttons, the center bore is slightly different from the other four.

C

CASEIN ...

An early plastic made from milk that was produced around the turn of the century.

CATALIN ...

A brand name for bakelite and was produced in the 1950s.

CATGUT ...

In the 18th Century, some buttons, usually military, ones, were made by putting a design of metal over a piece of wood. Catgut was wrapped around the wood, and the seamstress would sew the buttons to the jacket by sewing under the crossed piece of catgut.

CHAMPLEVÉ ...

See ENAMEL.

CHINA CALICO ...

CHINA STENCIL ...

CLOISONNÉ ...

See ENAMEL.

COLONIAL PEARLS ...

Buttons from the American colonial period, the 1700s, which are characterized by thick mother of pearl, sometimes highly designed, and with a very heavy pin shank in the center.

CRAPE STONE ...

Black stone, usually onyx, or black glass grooved to look like crape stone -- used in the 1800's to make mourning buttons and jewelry.

CUPID ...

CUT STEELS ...

(a.k.a. "RIVETED STEELS") have been used since the 18th Century and well into the 20th. They were actually "invented" in the 18th Century as a replacement for or imitation of diamonds. Although consistently used, they enjoyed a high revival period in the 19th Century when they were "worn to court" as well as used for embellishment on the common man's clothing and then again another revival in the late 19th early 20th when they were used as trim or borders on buttons. These periods were "high" use periods, actually the steels have been used throughout three centuries, 18th, 19th and 20th. Some buttons are simply patterned from cut steels covering the entire button.

D

DESIGN UNDER GLASS ...

(a.k.a. "DUG" -- not to be confused with the term "dug").

DRUM ...

Drum buttons are so called because the straight, high sides between the front and back give the button the overall appearance of a drum. Many are pad backs, though some have loop shanks.

Dug ...

A button that was dug out of the ground (not to be confused with the acronym "DUG").

If you've got a button definition to add or modify, or you have a picture that we can use, please e-mail us!