The Button Show

Serious button collector's only...

   So this weekend was the big "button show."  For those of you that don't know, my grandmother is an antique button collector. She has been doing this for about 20 years now. She and my grandfather have been in the antique business for a long time and years ago she became fascinated with old buttons. To say the least I have learned a tremendous amount of information from all of my grandparents (my mother's parents were in the business as well).  I feel extremely lucky and blessed to have come from a family with so many influences in the world of antiques. 

Anyway, this weekend was the Missouri State Button Society's Spring Show. The button society sends out a rules and guidelines book with all of the competitive awards that it's members have written. My grandmother started preparing, constructing and designing her trays of buttons for the competitions back in January!!! This year she entered 12 trays and won 2 second place ribbons and 1 third place. She was a little disappointed, but I was very proud of her because I knew how hard she had worked and how tough the competition was. In addition to the competition there are vendors selling their beautiful button collections, a couple of programs and the awards breakfast. 

Grandma and I had such a fabulous time just the two of us. We drove up on Friday and had lunch at a tea house in Cole Camp, Missouri (which was a neat town, very small). Then we visited with all her button buddies, had dinner and a margarita, and shopped for buttons! On Saturday we attended the awards breakfast which was very interesting and then did some more visiting and shopping and drove home. 

This years trip was cut a little short for her, she would have stayed from Thursday through Sunday if she would have gone on her own.  It was quite the experience for me... my love for these amazing little pieces of art and history has grown tremendously over the last year or so.  I find it fascinating that these beautiful creations are merely a mechanical part of a garment, but hold so much beauty and history at the same time.

This years theme was "shoes" and the motto was "A Step in Time.' My grandmother's chapter was in charge of the decorations. I helped by cutting the shoe paper in circles so the centerpieces for the tables had something to sit on.

This was my big purchase... it is not a button but it is an antique Italian mosaic buckle. I plan to keep it for my collection unless the "right person" came a long and wanted to purchase it. I think I am going to string beads from the left side to the right side and use the buckle part as a clasp in the front of the necklace...

These are some of the cute buttons I purchased... Left to right, design under glass, enameled  & design under glass, glass (probably Czech).