Page 25 - January1948

NATIONAL BUTTON BULLETIN 2C

Paintings on glass of a distinctly pictorial nature, portraits, stiU life,
landscapes, florals and the like, all find their counterparts in the buttons that
have come down to us from this period. S. A.
-L.

THE FORUM (PART I)
(Continued from p. 3b1 November Issue)
ADDENDA-WOOD AND BONE BACKED BUTTONS
The Salesman's Sample Case from the Kohn Collection, together with
trays of these vrood and bone backed buttons mounted so that all backs were
visible, were used on the Forum program, as sr'as also the mounted card of
eighty buttons in the Buck collection.

\,IIOOD AND BONE I}AC,T(ED BT'I'TONS
ErarnDles Shorving ll:rck Constrl('tiorr
No. l-plain flat bone disc, four holes, cord or gut misslng.
No.2-slightly cone shaped, circle made by cutting lathe, gut crossed.
No.3-plain flat bone disc, five holes, gut, reinfol.ced wiilr Breen thread in
button hole stitch. Many sl)ecimens 1\-e|e flnished thus for longer wear', Speci-
mens of similar type may be seen at Cooper Union lluscrrnr, N. y.
No. 4-flat bone disc, rvith beveled edge, fir'e holt s, gut missing.
No. 5-bone back with metal loop shank in bone. Specimens showing wood
discs have also been found witlt netal loon shanlis.
No. 6-s-lightly conlex, s ood hrck rvitlr beveletl edge, five holes with cord
or strin€i. S(luare arrnngement of eord.
No. ?-flat wood back, fit'e holes, gut, squar€ arrangement of gut.
- _ No. S-hlgh convex, fi\-e holes, wood with gut. Wiah magnifylng glass the
thinner turned rim of the $.ood is noticeable, rvhere the metal s'as t-urired over.
This rnay be seen also on most of the other specilnens.
Mrs. Albert mentioned that she had exanined individually all the wood
and bone back buttons in the cooper union Museum collection indivialually
(Miss Haynes having renoved the glass covering to permit her to do so);
also in like manner, the buttons displayed at the Jumel Mansion in N. y.
She examined those in the collection of Mr. Oscar T. Barck together with all
examples owned by Mrs. Achilles Kohn, also trays owned by Mrs. Bess T.
Wilson, Judge Chester Pendleton, Mrs. l\{adge Walker, Mr. Leo J. Caron,
and those in the Albert collection, and scores of individual specirnens sent to
her for examination. They are all of the same period and manufacture and
she emphasized the fact that she never has seen a newly made wood or bone
back. On some of the old specimens, it is not unusual to see the hardened
resin in the holes when the cat-gut is broken away, it may occasionally be
seen on specimens with cat-gut, twine, or cord still in place. F.or it must be
remembered that these buttons were put together in this manner.