Page 8 - July1998

150 NATXCN}\I, B]IJTTON BLIN,N,ETNN July 1998

A Cool Card of Scrap Cats

This charming set of watch crystal buttons was made by the late Prof.
Theodore Gates of Pennsylvania in 1966. He used 19th century German
scraps of polychrome lithographs to create these adorable buttons. The
"humanized" cats wear glasses, hats, and costumes of all types and are
captured in a sentimental fantasy. Even the lips are painted like people.
These colorful buttons show Gates at his greatest, carefully decoupaging
the scraps and adding sprinkles offoil and pearl tesserae to give the buttons
lasting sparkle before adding the protective watch crystals. The backs are
completely sealed with coal asphaltum. Each button is signed "TJG" and
dated in white ink. They show us a world of fantasy in another time which is
masical even to this dav. -MWS