Look what I found a few years ago at a garage sale in Arizona. Rarely do Bakelite buttons turn up in the tasteless bargain zones of searing driveways out in the desert, but that's where I chanced on this rootbeer keeper in a shoebox full of mangy buttons. The lady in charge of the sale knew this was Bakelite, but she sold it to me for far fewer dollars that she should have and said she was glad to see it go to a good home. Since then, I've studied this button many times and enjoy looking at the triadic framework surrounding the brass shield. It's an American button, probably made in the mid 1920's, but there's something decidedly French about the design. Bearing semblance to a princely fandangle, it reminds me of a battle-weary brooch from 18th Century Paris at the time of the assault on the Tuileries.
-Sherbert McGee
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