How to Display Your Button Collection

Moonglow...china stencil...lacy glass...victorian...paperweight...diminutives...

Over the years, on many button hunts with my equally fascinated and obsessed baby sister, I've collected some wonderful antique buttons. Each new discovery of these little works of art led to joining the NC Button Society, and buying button collecting books to learn more. At a NC Button Society show, we got to see rare buttons we could only dream about owning.

My best idea, I think, of how to display antique buttons is shown below. My living room is blue and yellow, and I had this vintage frame forever that I knew I wanted to display some of my buttons in. I gathered blue and yellow buttons for my project over quite some time. Then I hunted down a really cheap vintage Chinese Checkers game to use as a template for layout of the buttons. After marking out the pattern, I mounted all the buttons as recommended (with plastic coated telephone wire), then had the piece professionally framed with mats and non-glare glass.



Over the years, while browsing antique stores with hubby, he was always on the lookout for one of those rare, not combed through, jars of antique buttons. I think he enjoyed the thrill of the hunt as much as my sister and I. He really took an interest in being able to identify the harder-to find types of vintage buttons. It's really funny to see him walk by this framed example and rattle off the names of each kind of button ~ like a test I've given him, looking at me to see if he's right and smiling. One advantage? ~ He's bought me some pretty awesome antique buttons for Christmas over the years!

If you have a unique way of displaying your button collection, please do share!

'Til next time,

Mary