THE BUTTON.

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 16, 9 April 1927, Page 13

THE BUTTON.

AN INTERESTING CENTENARY. It seems singularly ungrateful that Paris should have chosen this pariic liar season to threaten us with an inundation of bows as a subsitiute for the decorative button, for it is exactly a hundred years since buttons for the million became a possibility, says a writer in the “Manchester Guardian.” In 1827 an American, Samuel Williston, invented a button-making machine which resulted in the mass production of cheaper buttons and secured their universal popularity. Previously all buttons had been hand made, which made even the least pretentious sufficiently expensive. This American invention suffered from the disadvantage of producing only one type of button, the metal variety, while the hand-made button had been composed of quite a number of interesting materials ranging from wood and bone to exquisite pieces in silver and gold studded with gems. But during the last century invention and research have so widened the range of foundations for machine-made buttons that its limitations have been completely vanquished. One of the modern inventions is the “ivory” button, where the material is extracted from the root of a tree called the corozo nut, which is softer than the real ivory and more easily turned and dyed. The moilierof pearl button also created a mild excitement among the romantic, who liked the idea of its being obtained from pearl oyster shells. The button is decidedly cosmopolitan, for many nations have interested them- ; selves in bringing it to perfection. It i was a Dane who introduced the cloth- i covered, as apart from the all-cloth, : button, and his son substituted the canvas tuft for the metal shank for sewing the button to the garment. A Frenchman invented the process for making buttons from the boiled hoofs of cattle, while the singularly charming porcelain buttons produced about half a century ago were of English contrivance. Bohemia, as might he expected, specialised in buttons of lovely coloured glass, but the gorgeous gilt affairs figuring so largely in old fashion plates were the pride of Birmingham. and may be said to have founded the fortunes of that city. In the beginning the button was extremely expensive and entirely decorative. It was quite often willed from father to son, or from mother to daughter, and was generally the work of a goldsmith or artist craftsman. There was an attempt at manufacturing buttons in Elizabeth’s day, but only a few extravagant people ever attempted to use them as fastenings. Horn buttons were made in Birmingham in the eighteenth century, and were quite popular, while button-makers were protected by a law imposing a penalty of 40'- on any person selling or u*ing “buttons made of cloth, serge, drugget, frier or camlet.”