Plants and Animals

Look at some of the finest Bakelite button collections, including illustrated books of the subject, and surely you will discover some of the rarest and most highly sought-after buttons, which were made in the shapes of plants and animals. This pair of buttons comes from the extraordinary button shop of my friend, Doreen. At right, a bundle of leaves (or perhaps a posey) makes for a fetching button carved out of red Bakelite. At left, a button made of creamed corn Bakelite is shaped like a single bud above a stem and two leaves. These fine and flowery old buttons go back to the 1930's.

Animal buttons are among the hardest Bakelite buttons to find; and they are by far the most costly. Over the years, on this blog, I've highlighted an elephant, a horse, a turtle, a couple of birds, several sea creatures and even a bright orange butterfly. Today I'm unveiling two more animal buttons and here they are: a green Bakelite coyote with a glass eye and a swordfish sculpted out of rootbeer Bakelite with a painted eye. Be sure to look at the chiseled, rough-hewn texture on the wild dog. I forked out a pretty penny on these Bakelite beasts and I'm happy to house them in my vintage zoo.

Nature obviously inspired a lot of these old buttons and here's two more of them in the shapes of a spotted bug and a lovely acorn. What exactly is this insect we are looking at? Is it an exotic beetle or maybe a termite? I'm not a fan of vermin-shaped buttons, but this one doesn't creep me out too much. It's made of clear and glimmering apple juice Bakelite. The acorn is made of creamed corn Bakelite and displays the variability of this olden-day plastic with a smooth area and a lumpy crown. That's all for today. Thank you for looking at some of my all-time favorite biological specimens.

Visit Doreen's online store:

BUTTONS FROM THE ATTIC 

-Sherbert McGee

Beglittered & Bejeweled

BEGLITTERED: Perhaps the most eye-catching of all Bakelite buttons are the ones infused with a New Year's Eve party. Here are two of those buttons and they are not to be missed. Nor could you miss them since they are impossible to not see. Flooded in gobs of glitter, these oblong wowzers are ovular with capped ends. Everything is Bakelite. The bulk of these babies is apple juice Bakelite. The more highly pictured button is blessed with burgundy bumpers (Bakelite), while the lower button is decorated with curvaceous side-panels in a rare shade of dark blue-green teal (also Bakelite). When Bakelite swallows glitter, the result is a champagne blowout: Ritzy. Excessive. Jubilant.

BEJEWELED: While glitter is fun, perhaps diamonds are where that fun turns luxurious. Here we have three sensational ball buttons made of apple juice Bakelite, and these roly-poly beauties are not merely fun. They are downright extravagant. Measuring just under one inch across, they're chunky orbs with more rhinestones riding their hides than I care to count. The sun took a literal shine to these fancy globes; and would you look at the firelight caught in all three of their shadows. The antique dealer who sold me these buttons claimed to have purchased them from the estate of Lizabeth Scott—a smoky-voiced actress most known for her film noir pictures of the 1940's. 

BEGLITTERED and BEJEWELED: Today's post ends with a bling instead of bang; and here's a grand finale that refuses to be ignored. There are two buttons here: a gigantic belt-buckle sized showstopper made of orange juice Bakelite that was studded with twenty rhinestones, and a smaller button made of apple juice Bakelite with two inlaid black Bakelite circles set in just the right position to make the buttonholes look like googly eyes. What more, this button was glittered with a golden hailstorm decorating its translucent interior. Normally I wouldn't set one button on top of the other for a blog photo, but that massive slab of orange Bakelite was just begging to be treated like a stage. And that's showbiz!

Visit Doreen's online store:

BUTTONS FROM THE ATTIC

-Sherbert MCGee   

Geometric Bakelite

Truly a work of art, this large square is a Bakelite coat button that goes back to the 1930's. Made out of three colors, the Bakelite pieces are interlocking strips of rootbeer and butterscotch with a chocolate-brown center. The button exhibits a bold portrayal of the art deco style, which came into prominence between the world wars and which has come to represent an aesthetic stamp of 20th Century progress and power. The geometric formation of this studious button is drop-dead dashing!

Another display of rootbeer Bakelite, these heavy buttons are no ordinary set. Chunky & charming, each features a centerpiece made of swirled butterscotch Bakelite. The buttons resemble sharp cubes with smooth corners and a polished suavity that easily goes back to the 1920's. There's also a collegiate air coming off of these preppy twins and I can't help but wonder if they once adorned the sweater of a trendy egghead, circa 1929. Naturally, I'm naming these buttons Harvard and Yale. 

-Sherbert McGee

Bakelite+Wood: Jackpot!

After many years of collecting Bakelite buttons, I've accumulated a slew of them that were made with wooden bits. They are most unusual in that these two materials couldn't be more dissimilar. Bakelite is a type of plastic made of synthetic elements. Obviously man-made, it is a thermosetting phenol formaldehyde resin. And wood is wood. Put them together and the result is a peculiar combo of the organic and the inorganic. Nature meets plastic. And just look at this vivid variety of Bakelite buttons produced with lumber components. The big button at the center depicts an art deco design. Beneath it, the eye-shaped button is made of apple juice Bakelite over wood. The two pieces are ridged where they connect at the center—giving the button a striped texture. The topmost button pictured here is made with a wood base and then two tones of red Bakelite, which are clearly visible with a pinkish red sandwiched under a maroon layer. What else can be said of these quirky half-breeds? When timber and Bakelite get married, they indeed bear some fascinating children. 

This pair of buttons has been in my collection for approximately one hour. I purchased these buttons earlier this week from my friend Doreen and they literally just showed up in my mailbox. Not too long ago, my collection of Bakelite/wood buttons seemed complete. But when I saw these two buttons in Doreen's shop, I had to snatch them up on account of their unique style. I don't find buttons like this very often with the Bakelite framing the wood—and with such excellent precision. The round button shown here was carved with a dramatic set of lines that run seamlessly over the circular midsection of wood as well as the apple juice Bakelite. The square button was built similarly, but the wooden area runs smooth with all the carved details whittled into the black, Bakelite border. Bakelite buttons are peculiar enough by themselves, but get some wood involved and they become truly eccentric.

Visit Doreen's online store:

BUTTONS FROM THE ATTIC 

-Sherbert McGee

Pure Prystal

Prystal, a transparent variation of Bakelite, is an interesting subcategory of the famously charming plastic. Here are three examples of Prystal buttons: 1. a chunky drum in a bright shade of red that I like to call cherry juice. 2. an apple juice "trinket button" in the shape of a bowling pin. 3. a large and glowingly rare orange button (and the only example of orange Prystal that I've ever seen, courtesy of my friend Doreen). All of these buttons exude a shimmering clearness. They are extraordinary.

Visit Doreen's online store:

BUTTONS FROM THE ATTIC

-Sherbert McGee

Star Cookies!

Bakelite cookie buttons came in a huge assortment of styles, but these star-shaped cookies are the only ones I've seen in three colors (instead of the standard two). Tricolored and starry, they aren't easy buttons to find. I'm calling these my most unusual cookies on account of their special design. All Bakelite cookie buttons have their antiquated merits, but these two cookies are my lucky stars. 

Visit Doreen's online store:

BUTTONS FROM THE ATTIC

-Sherbert McGee