What is a Button Collecting Hobby? It is most definitely Art and History in miniature.
There is a full spectrum of button collecting, starting with someone who has their grandmother’s sewing button tin, or someone who found a pickle jar full of buttons at a garage sale. The middle of the spectrum is a person who collects buttons of a certain material such as black glass or china, or a certain type such as military, or a certain topic such as flowers or birds. The other end of the spectrum is the “competitor,” a person who learns the classification system based on the National Button Society Blue Book and applies this system to prepare competition trays.
Buttons come in a variety of materials, including celluloid, ceramic, china, enamel, fabric, glass, horn, metal, shell, plastic, wood, and other natural materials. Buttons can be found in antique shops, garage sales, estate sales, button shows, button auctions….
Button collectors are warm and social. We are more than happy to share knowledge, expertise and friendship. The reason is that if we can share our love of buttons, then perhaps we can bring you too into the wonderful world of button collecting and our hobby can flourish.
Still curious? We suggest that you visit a local club, button program or button show near you. Some of our members present programs at local libraries, activity centers etc. If you are interested, please use the Contact tab to request more information.
Otherwise, feel free to peruse the Education and Information tabs here as well as the “Competition/ Winning Trays” tabs. There you can see illustrations featuring over 20,000 buttons on winning competition trays.
