Double-Cut in Red

BAKELITE: A Short-Lived History 

The industrial use of Bakelite is a vanished art. Gone are the days of Bakelite clocks and radios and swanky cigarette holders. And buttons too. When Bakelite was discontinued, a lot of household items lost their "Jazz Age" aesthetic. As cheaper types of plastic (i.e. celluloid and lucite) replaced Bakelite in the 1940's, the Art Deco movement drew to a close and the importance of "style" waned in favor of "functionalism." What we have today is an endless torrent of dreary, affordable schlock. Walmart, anyone? 

Imagine working in a button factory in the 1920's or the 30's and the unique output of that time period. The tools and machinery that workers used are what produced this kind of "double-cut" button with a contrasting grid pattern on each side. It's Bakelite and it's hard to find. Needless to say: they don't make buttons like they used to. 

-Sherbert McGee    

Black Friday Flower

Art Deco all the way, this button has that 1920's oomph that I love in an old piece of Bakelite. I polished it for this photo, but not too much since I like how the patina in the carved details plays up the leafy design. Bakelite can be very theatrical and this button feels like its own cabaret show. Not suprisingly, it comes from NYC. I found it in an antique shop down the street from Coney Island.

-Sherbert McGee 

Spinach Soup Cans

A dark, spinachy green, these Bakelite buttons are shaped like a couple of tin cans. Why so? I have no idea, but I like to imagine them on the sleeve of a tricked out dinner jacket. They are robust buttons with the stubbiness of old drawer knobs. One can only wonder what kind of outfit they accentuated. Were buttons like this a fad once, churned out by the J.C. Penney Company at the height of the Great Depression? And who wore these? I'm going to make a wild guess: hipsters.

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-Sherbert McGee

Rootbeer Cheers!

I saw this button five years ago at an antique shop called "Pippin Vintage Jewelry" in New York City (on 17th Street). At first I passed on this faux tortoise humdinger, but as I was leaving the store I decided to go back and look at it again. The color is rootbeer. The shape of it reminds me of a stylized bolt head. "It's Bakelite," said one of the shop employees. Something about those deep, industrial-looking grooves won me over and I snapped it up. Since then I've never seen another button like it. Thank you, New York.  

-Sherbert McGee   

100% Apple Juice

This thickset pair of apple juice sisters has that Bakelite "clink" that collectors listen for when determining genuine Bakelite. I don't know if I have the ear for verifying Bakelite on sound, but these are the real deal. What I love about apple juice Bakelite is the fishbowl-like feel it emulates. These buttons have the chunky vibe and the signature heft that makes them unmistakably authentic. Once upon a time, I'll bet these were part of a real swanky coat. This is apple juice Bakelite at its juiciest.

-Sherbert McGee  

Fair and Square

The color on this one is known as creamed corn, the palest shade of Bakelite out there. Really, it's a faded variation of butterscotch that suggests ivory. Note the chiseled marks on the smoothness of the Bakelite where the squares were whittled down by factory tools. This bold button exudes all the buttery, vintage aplomb of definitive Bakelite. 1929: Be there or be square!

-Sherbert McGee 

Poppy on Chocolate

Some of the most sophisticated Bakelite buttons ever assembled were garnished with an escutcheon. I think that'll be the word of the day: Escutcheon. The definition is as follows:

Escutcheon (i'skuchun) 
"A flat piece of metal for ornamentation."

As a general rule, I prefer to collect Bakelite buttons without escutcheons since they often distract from the Bakelite. However, if the Bakelite is carved or artfully distinguished I will make an exception. This is one of those exceptions. The sloped sides of this button call attention to two rows of hoop-shaped indentations. Although the brass poppy escutcheon is definitely the central attraction, it's the carved Bakelite that I love the most. The color is chocolate, a toothsome hue that really does look like a Hershey confection.

Based on the Art Nouveau style of this escutcheon, I believe this button is nearly a century old. The vintage design of the poppy evokes the illustrations of John R. Neill who illustrated the original "Wizard of Oz" books between 1904 and 1920. The poppy is also a "remembrance symbol" that is used to honor soldiers who died during WWI between 1914 and 1918. The poppy was eloquently popularized as an emblem of the war's death toll in the John McCrae poem, "In Flanders Fields."  

I purchased this button in 2014 from an antique dealer in Royalton, Vermont.

-Sherbert McGee     

5 Little Buttons Having a Party

Averaging at half-an-inch across, these are among the smallest Bakelite buttons in my collection. I don't normally collect these eensy bits, but somehow I have quite a few of them. For tiny buttons, these have big visual-appeal. How would you describe the green one? It looks to me like a stylized bomb with aerodynamic fins. The funny yellow button with its fifteen prongs looks like it fell out of a Bakelite R2-D2. (I love spoke buttons and will be posting more at a later date.) Also, I think there's a Cole Porter musical happening in the apple juice doozy with shavings of confetti falling like snow in its insides. Anything Goes! Bakelite is too cool.

-Sherbert McGee       

Drop RED Gorgeous!

What a tough button to photograph! This cherry pinwheel has the look of polished glass and loves the sunshine. I took a picture of it at noon, but the glare was too much. Four hours later I tried again and got this not-so-great shot. Bakelite is famously tricky to photograph, though it can be amazingly photogenic. This curvy beauty parades an Art Deco seashell outline that reminds me of a twirling flamenco dress. 

-Sherbert McGee

Awesome Moss Blossom

Here's a button that dreams of becoming an artichoke. The color of this Bakelite is called moss, though some collectors call it split pea soup. It's a combination of green and brown with marbled veins of black. Some of my moss buttons have an almost amphibious vibe while others remind me of strange vegetables. This one sports a trefoil design with etchings on the leaves. I love how a hunk of old plastic can seem so organic. Some of my weirdest Bakelite buttons are of this moss variety. They are the goblins of my collection.

-Sherbert McGee