Nifty find out of a home, 6 matching antique buttons which are being sold individually (you can buy 1, 2 or all 6). Pretty antique carved shell or mother-of-pearl buttons, square in shape measuring 1 1/16 inches in length/width and about 1/8 inch in depth (this varies slightly, we are guessing due to hand cutting and differing depths to the shell itself, even within a single button).

We are not button experts, but from the style and material we know these are old buttons that are at least vintage and more likely antique buttons dating from the late 1800s to early 1900s. These were found along with many other shell or mother-of-pearl buttons supporting their age. We think these likely would have been worn on a sweater, dress or coat.

The depth of the carving varies in the design of these vintage buttons, being deeply carved for the 3 slanted ray lines in each corner and for the 4 center sewing holes, with a lesser depth to the carving for the circular cross-hatched design band surrounding the 4 center holes. These have the expected all-over pearly white coloring.

The topsides are all smoothly sanded surfaces with the design carved into it, and sanded lower in a concave curved fashion on the inner section of the circular design with the lowest part where the 4 sewing holes are made. The backsides are also sanded smoothly, although sometimes the natural variations in the shell keep these from being totally smooth, having some raised ridges or sections as made. On the backsides, to a varying degree among the buttons, you can also see lines or line cracks or line ridges in the shells as one would expect in shells and as made; these are not wear cracks or any of these buttons cracking apart, just lines in the shell. You do not see any of these shell lines on the beautiful topsides.

We've provided 5 images, with and without the camera lighting. While the camera lighting makes it sometimes easier to see details, the light reflection causes the buttons to look "whiter" than they do in person and can "bland out" some details, too. Yet, shooting without the camera light makes the shell buttons look much yellower or darker than they do in person but can make it easier at times to see detail. We just couldn't find a "happy medium" here, so we shot pictures in both lighting situations. In person the color of these buttons is the lovely expected pearl/mother-of -pearl coloring which is a "yellower" white than the pictures shot with the camera lighting but not as dark as the pictures shot without the lighting (net, the color is closer to the lighted pictures but they are "too white").

Excellent condition with no major problems. We can see some minor edge chips on some of these old buttons, either on the topside or bottom side edges, and a few have some slightly larger chips on the undersides, but we believe these were done in the hand carving which is not a perfect carving method, rather than use/wear/storage, and none of these detract from the design or beauty. Some have some slight dotting/dark dots/dots of dirt or other slight wear on the topsides, and some have some dots/spotting on the undersides, but nothing bad at all. It is quite possible there is some other minor age/use/storage wear we are missing, but there really isn't anything to worry about here. There may be minor differences in the carving and minor hand-made imperfections as happens with hand carved items, but these are clearly meant to be similar, largely identical and look great.

An interesting find which would be a great addition to any button collection or could be used by a clever person in designing their own clothes.

If you are interested in purchasing more than one antique MOP button, please e-mail us prior to placing the order. The system has been set up to calculate the shipping based on one button and will not automatically provide the cost savings from shipping more than one in the same package. We would be pleased to calculate that for you.