Bakelite Ménage à Trois

Admittedly not my best photograph, this dark button boasts three tones of Bakelite. The base and outer edges are a deep chocolate. Two stripes of rootbeer Bakelite surround the central band, which is apple juice infused with glitter. At first glance this button is a drab chunk of overcast hues, but look closely and there is a lot going on with this angular and complex relic from the 1930's.

-Sherbert McGee

Toggle Tuesday: Green Bean

Bakelite buttons often remind me of fruits and candies in the way of food, but here's a toggle that smacks of ripe and tender vegetable matter. It's lightly carved with a sprout of grass-like lines and sports a smart quality with its garden-green good looks. I've never been fond of vegetables on my dinner plate, but in the world of Bakelite buttons I can handle this cheery green bean.

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Click here: BUTTONS FROM THE ATTIC

-Sherbert McGee

The Dewdrop

Here's a button that I've had in my collection for a long, long time. I call this button "the dewdrop" because of the five droplet-shaped formations that seem to be curled up together on the surface of this old biddy-of-a-button. Curious thing about this specimen of Bakelite, the color is apple juice and yet it's not transparent. Instead, it's got the smeary look of a half-sucked throat lozenge. On that note, maybe I should call this button, "the cough drop."

-Sherbert McGee   

Monopoly!

A gamesome button, the centerpiece is licorice Bakelite while the border is striped with alternating squares of butterscotch. When I look at this button I see a shrunken-down board game—such as Sorry!, Trivial Pursuit or Monopoly—with each square being a stop along the roundabout pastime. Not a flat button, the edges are just slightly angled downwards. I number this old button among my most savvy and sophisticated prizes.

-Sherbert McGee

Cherry Jell-O Delight

While photographing this glowing red Bakelite button, I realized that it's the Prystal variety. The sunlight shines right through it, which of course is a sign of Prystal—a rare brand of alternative Bakelite that demonstrates a glassy effect. Like a shimmering delicacy poured out of a Jell-O mould, this visibly tilted button has all the reflective charms of a gelatinous dessert. Buttons like this were a dime a dozen in the 1920's and 1930's. Now they are costly things indeed.

-Sherbert McGee

The Thingamajig

I wonder what inspired the wavy lines on this large Bakelite button in bright, luminous rootbeer. A trickle of deep ravines, they seem to form something reminiscent of a fossil or maybe a seashell. Or does this button bear the footprint of a twig-like space alien? It's anybody's guess what's going on with these curvy tendrils on this old keepsake from the 1930's.  

-Sherbert McGee

Wonder Cut

One of my favorite double-cut buttons, this one looks as though it's stretching apart in two places with internal strands barely intact as the Bakelite comes undone like a tortured wafer. I like how the featured surface designs on this butterscotch creation are etched away to show the evenly sliced underside. It always impresses me how many different double-cut styles are out there—ornate grids and geometrical latticework on buttons going back nearly 80 or 90 years.

-Sherbert McGee

Oddball: Front & Back

Normally I don't show the backsides of my buttons. How indelicate! But today I just had to take a picture of this boggling anomaly: front and back. The button is a transparent orb made of apple juice Bakelite with a glob of chocolate locked inside. Viewed from the top, something uncanny happens as the laws of physics cause the brown nucleus of the button to appear in two tones—or a dark brown blob hovering in its lighter brown shadow. This effect gives the button the look of a wide-open eyeball. Flip it over and see the truth. Viewed from the back, the button is flattened with the brown section merely a simple and singular component. It's a tricky button with a surreal knack. And a rarity from the 1920's!  

-Sherbert McGee

The Wine Rose

Among my finest and most beautiful maroon buttons, this poised plum is a visual aid for words like: choice, winsome, lavish and impeccable. The Bakelite is a stacked pair of curvaceous tiers with five petals protruding from beneath the upper four. A thick and heavily-built button, it must've dominated some nifty garb during its heyday in the 1920's. Truly a purple doozy—and possibly a floozy too.

-Sherbert McGee

Citrus Exotica

Always looking at texture, I'm a sucker for buttons with a crisscross design and here's a fruity example. This one's an orange juice button (Bakelite, of course) with what appears to be pineapple skin. To heighten this effect, the button is rounded like a golden berry. Imitating a moist and tropical tidbit, this shiny slice of Bakelite looks like it fell off of a serving platter at a festivity in the Congo. 

Visit Doreen's online store

Click here: BUTTONS FROM THE ATTIC

-Sherbert McGee