Seaside Set

Here's Day Four of a full week in which I'm spotlighting buttons marked with ocean motifs. I love beaches and mermaids and anything to do with maritime imagery, so these buttons truly call out to me. This particular set goes back to the 1940's and is made of bright red Bakelite. Each button bears a white celluloid piece that works as a naval emblem. The overconfident pose of the sailor reminds me of the old-timey "Sailor Jack" mascot that can still be found on boxes of Cracker Jack caramel-coated popcorn. Stay tuned for another sea-themed button tomorrow.

 

-Sherbert McGee

 

“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me)

it's always ourselves we find in the sea.”

—e.e. cummings

Toggle Tuesday: Green with Faux MOP

It's Toggle Tuesday and here's a smart set of Bakelite toggles in my favorite shade of splendiferous green. Smooth and shiny, each toggle is inset with a stripe of buffed celluloid, or imitation mother-of-pearl. They'd be snazzy buttons without the fake MOP, but look how that pearlized stripe gives these emerald logs a powerful dose of understated zing! Made once upon a time in the 1930's.

Visit Doreen's online store:

BUTTONS FROM THE ATTIC

-Sherbert McGee

Casein+Bakelite Sandwich

Last week I posted a button made of Bakelite and Lucite. Following up with another combination of plastics, here's a button sandwiching layers of white casein and bright red Bakelite. Casein is an interesting plastic in that it's made of proteins derived from milk. The layers of casein and Bakelite on this button are carved at the sides for a striking design that gives the button the appearance of an advanced gumdrop. It's no wonder I'm stuck on this sweet old beauty. Made in the 1940's.

-Sherbert McGee

Lucite Collared Bakelite

Check out this flashy harlequin of a button. The central nugget is a polished chunk of rootbeer Bakelite. But this old dandy doesn't end there. This button is collared in a Lucite frill that extends around the Bakelite nub like glorious flower petals or transparent rays of light. I love buttons that combine plastics and this is an exciting example of that. Lucite is a common type of see-through plastic that was invented after Bakelite. circa 1940.

-Sherbert McGee

Here's Day Three of the old advertisements I'm positing this week from classic issues of Fortune magazine. Several of these ads are in color and here's one of them. Bakelite Plastics were a novel industrial emergence and a lucrative way to construct household products during the 1920's, 1930's and the early 1940's. Eventually, other plastics (such a Lucite and Celluloid) overtook the market and hence Bakelite has become a highly collectible thing of the past. Hold onto the history...

Father's Day Button

Father's Day is today and here's a button that has always reminded me of my dad. The majority of this spruce treasure is apple juice Bakelite, but the darker section is a celluloid overlay in a blended tone of beige and brown. As a life-long engineer and a skilled innovator, my dad employs a variety of measuring tools and for that reason I think of him when I study this smart-looking button. With its sharp lines carved evenly on the Bakelite, the button parallels the type of instrument that I might've seen in his office when I was a kid. There's a handsome intelligence to this button that smacks of a draftsman's technical know-how. Circa 1935.

-Sherbert McGee

Familiar Finds

If these buttons look familiar, that's because I posted similarly colored buttons last year. The little ticket-shaped button here is made of butterscotch Bakelite. Last May I posted two buttons just like this in green and maroon. The toggle pictured here (with pearlized celluloid at both ends) is exactly like a red and brown pair of toggles I posted last year in October, while this one is black—and also made of Bakelite. Both of these buttons were made in the 1930's.

Visit Doreen's online store:
BUTTONS FROM THE ATTIC

-Sherbert McGee