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CHARTER
OAK The Charter
Oak button illustrates how history and buttons are interrelated.
It is a beautifully executed rim and tree of pressed brass, windmill and
building are of pewter on a dark background.
The Charter Oak was a famous oak tree, which formerly stood on the
northern slope of Wyllys Hill, in Hartford, Connecticut.
The trunk was twenty-five feet in circumference near the roots.
In 1687 Sir Edmond
Andros, then the governor-general of New England demanded the release of the
charter and to this outrage the colonist feigned to submit.
However, when the deed was to be consummated, lights in the council
chamber were suddenly blown out and in the confusion that followed the charter
was spirited away. Tradition says
that it was concealed in a large cavity, about two feet from the ground in the
trunk of the charter Oak where it remained from the summer of 1687 until the
spring of 1689 when Andros was removed from office. Other versions of the story were told but from 1789 the legend of Charter Oak became an accepted truth and the tree was reverenced. On August 21, 1856 it was blown down by a heavy gale and a white marble slab now marks the exact spot where it stood.
WORLD
WAR I LOCKET BUTTON LOCKET
BUTTON
Some people
specialize in Military and Political
buttons. I have brought a locket
button from the first World War. The
front of the button appears to be a
government issued metal button but there is a hinge and the soldiers could
insert their loved ones' pictures in the locket. These
buttons appeared like any other WWI or WWII military button on the front but
were really locket buttons. This is
like a government issued button except that the front and back pieces were
fastened together with a hinge. When
attached to the garment by its loop shank, the button appeared like any brown,
painted GI WWI uniform button.
AIRSHIP/BLIMP An
Airship was featured on a two-piece pressed brass button during the 1930’s.
Zepppelin’s invention, the air-ship (blimp) has first flown in 1900.
They were used during the war as weapons of war then as transatlantic
passenger carriers, competing with the ocean liners. In
1937, the German air-ship Hindenburg crashed and burned at its landing dock in
New Jersey, killing many passengers. The
event stands out as more than just a death-knell for passenger air-ships.
ADMIRAL
ROBERT PEARY – 1909 The North Pole was first discovered in 1892, but it took seventeen years and eight attempts for Admiral Robert Peary - accompanied by four Eskimos and one shipmate-to become the first white man to reach it, in 1909.. Manufacturers quickly produced buttons with designs based on actual photos brought back from the expedition. This very fine quality button features Peary's ship, the Roosevelt, Peary, the Eskimos, and the Polar bears.
On a hunting trip in Mississippi in 1902 American President Teddy Roosevelt refused to shoot a bear club; the moment was immortalized by political cartoonist Cliff Berryman and caught the public’s fancy resulting in the manufacture of the perennially popular stuffed teddy bear. The teddy bear soon became a decorative motif, adorning boxes, postcards, tea sets, lamps, puzzles, and of course, buttons.
1904
WORLDS FAIR BUTTONS I have brought replicas of the buttons worn by Uniformed Employees at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition St. Louis 1904 World's Fair.
NATIONAL
RECOVERY ADMINISTRATION 1933 back in the 30's, the NRA made some plain wooden buttons with the NRA backmark.
KATY
RAILROAD This is an uniform button from the Katy railroad, which is the Katy Trail today.
MODEL
T There are many buttons with our early automobiles. One example
BEATLES AND BEATLES REBUS Here are two buttons celebrating the Beatle’s popularity from the 60’s.
BEAR AND BULL STOCK MARKET SYMBOLS This is probably a blazer button showing the influence of the Stock Market.
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Updated: 2/11/08 |
