Allie's Adornments&nbsp;&nbsp;

A charm string or memory string was a 19th century pastime which consisted of collecting buttons & other small mementos & stringing them together.
Young women of the 1860s-1900s would have parties in which they would exchange buttons & stories associated with them, Rules dictated that buttons couldn't be purchased for the collection & had to be gifts from other collectors, suitors, friends or family. The gift of a button was considered lucky & the stringing of the buttons on a string enhanced good luck.

Strings were often left in view of visitors in order to encourage donations as well as conversation starter by serving as a memento & reminder of past events. The string became a physical reminder of the button owner & times associated with that person.

Lore has it that girls who collected 999 buttons would meet her true love after adding the 1000th. Other stories claim the addition of the 1000th would doom the girl to spinsterhood. One thousand button strings are rare & most were much smaller. This one has about 150 buttons.

Eros, cupid, fairies & angels. 01/17/2012

In the late 1800’s William Bouguereau was one of the most popular painters in France. In 1880, his painting “Young Girl Defending Herself From Eros,” took the Paris Salon by storm. His romantic style of classical imagery was a hit with the public. This button was made in Paris & is a replica of his famous painting.

Antique metal picture buttons with cupid, angels, fairies & putti.

Victorian picture & twinkle buttons on original cards. 03/13/2011

Another great haul of buttons still on their original cards. or just barely still on the card as is the case in the last photo. Top buttons are much more detailed than I'd originally noticed & have an early Art Nouveau floral design over a green background. Gray buttons have a tiny butterfly in the design. bottom card of twinkle buttons with tinting.

Unused with plant life. 10/23/2010

Antique buttons with designs of plant life, unused, on their original cards. The top 2 images are of black glass buttons, the others are metal picture buttons.

Owl get it! Before & after. 08/19/2010

Before & after a lot of scrubbing with steel wool & brass cleaner.

Parisian Twinkle buttons. 07/06/2010

Victorian twinkle buttons, that have a reflective inner layer that is meant to provide additional shine & brilliance; unused on their original cards.

Vibrant. 06/19/2010

I vended at the Cupertino Cherry Blossom festival in April. There was a lady there who was telling her friend that there was no way that the buttons I use were Victorian. Pardon? The colors were too bright she said. Yes, well that's because I try to purchase as many unused cards of buttons as I can afford. Just because the photos from that era are black & white, doesn't mean that their clothing was too.

Before and after. 04/06/2010

I found a very nice lot of hidden gems. These are mother-of-pearl with cut steel escutcheons and brass with cut steel facets & escutcheons. The gems were hidden under a lot of rust, but after several hours of scrubbing with a bit of elbow grease, metal polish, steel wool & dish soap, the majority were salvageable.