Buttons for Gloria

Uncanny in their strange decadence, here's five buttons with an air that's eerily vogue and eccentric. Bakelite plastic in the color known as apple juice, the stylized cut of the borders smacks of the early 1920's and I believe this set may very well predate the Jazz Age. Moreover, the backs of these tarnished babies were gently daubed in a silver "wash" that gives them a slightly off-color tinge. Look at the button at lower right and you can see where the wash has a sudsy, bubbled effect. On account of their bizarre pallor and highly antiquated feel, I call these my Gloria Swanson buttons—named after the iconic film star who played Norma Desmond with such unforgettable madness in Sunset Boulevard (a character originally intended for Mae West). Now it might be a stretch to the call these buttons haunted, but I have to admit that they really do possess a ghostly aura with their dusty features and mystifying hue. Out of all the old buttons I own, these ancient vanities win for weirdest vibes and most freakishly opulent.

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-Sherbert McGee