Pickin Treasures: Christmas Decor & Vintage Textiles

I receive weekly estate sale emails from estatesales.net

If you enjoy estate sale shopping and are not currently on their email list, I suggest you try them.

They are set-up throughout the USA.

This week I received my estatesales.net listings and there were a ton of them!  Since I no longer resale, I try to rationalize my hunt...Do I have a couple of extra dollars for treasures... is there anything I really need...NO!  Somedays the desire to just go 'treasure pickin' consumes me and the hunt is on. 

Rarely do I look for large pieces, I mainly hunt for unique decor & gifts as well as items for my mixed-media artwork.  I have a hard time saying "NO" to holiday items and vintage textiles!

Here are the treasures I picked this week

 A beautifully weathered-patina small child's sled...perfect for a Christmas tablescape!

Christmas tidbits 

 Deep basket shining full of vintage Christmas ornaments.   

 An adorable vintage deer Christmas centerpiece

  Vintage dove ornaments with spun cotton around their wings, one vintage glass bird ornament and a vintage, quirky bird caroler than really needs some loving.

 Beautiful vintage textiles & Celluloid!

 My plans for the wonderfully aged pieces of Celluloid are to someday use the round-scalloped orphaned box lid as a frame/base for something special; the cylinder

will hold a mini Christmas tree this year and the square box will house trinkets in my studio.

 

Last but not least...precious vintage, handmade needle holders.  

I love this time of the year as the cooler days of Autumn arrive!  It is my FAVORITE season!

 Even though my days of resale are over, I continue this time of the year to go on my 'pickin' and Girls Rule road trips.  This coming weekend Julie & I will be hitting Fabulous Finds on Highway 99 , 230+ miles of garage sales & flea markets through the Flint Hills of Kansas.  So excited!

Estate Sale Buttons & Gone with the Wind Buttons

I find it very disappointing when an estate sale advertises antique/old buttons and at the sale all they offer is a plastic peanut butter jar filled with dirty nylon shirt buttons.

Just because the buttons are dirty does not mean they are old.  

Recently I found three nice button tins at estate sales.

Here are some buttons from the first tin.  Some of these I will keep and some I will use in art work

 

Pearls

Black Glass

Bone, Glass

 

 China

 

Composition

 

 Fabric (nearly all have pad back shanks)

 

 Vegetable Ivory

 

 Metals

 

Here are the more interesting buttons to me

 left: Republic Mexicana stud button (Mexican silver)

right: brass, high relief

 

 

and my favorite is this fabric Gone with the Wind button

 Most Gone with the Wind buttons have not survived over the years due to improper storage/care and use.

I am delighted this sweet small button found a new home with me!

The remaining two button tins will be posted later. 

* * * * * * * * 

Here is my article on Gone with the Wind buttons minus a few photos due to copyright restrictions.

(This article may not be used without my expressed permission, Thank you.)

Gone with the Wind Buttons

by Tami Hacker

 

If you search for Gone with the Wind buttons, you may find yourself searching endlessly.  The term Gone with the Wind does not appear in our National Button Society (NBS) Classification Blue Book. 

According to Return Engagement of Black Glass Buttons this endearing term was bestowed by button collector Margaret Johnson to a specific type of woven fabric buttons found on women’s 1850-1860s garments.  In her July 1946 Just Buttons magazine article, she refers to these buttons as “cloth buttons with raised designs covered with the same or contrasting material.”   She also mentions she has original store cards of these buttons with hand-written notes of “45c per dozen”, and “1 doz, Inv. of 1868” – thus helping us to date them.

These buttons are made up of two or more separate molds consisting of several pieces of cardboard  which are covered by woven fabric.  Most are ½” in diameter, and can be as high as they are round.  Molded Top buttons maybe decorated with cording or contrasting weave.  Others known as Fancy Tops include a center raised mold with glass centers; primarily black or white glass.  They were sold in sets of 20-24 both as fasteners or decoration on single and double-breasted bodices.    Almost always they have a pad back although a few have thread backs.

They are classified as Division 1 (pre-1918) buttons. 

Original garments, early fashion magazines such as Godey’s, and antique photos help to date these buttons between the Civil War and the 1860s. 

Margaret Mitchell’s 1936 book Gone with the Wind was brought to life in the 1939 movie by the same title.  The Civil War (1861-1865) came to life on the big screen popularizing such things as the fashion of that era. 

It is thought Gone with the Wind (GWTW) buttons earned their name due to the era in which they were created, this is partly true.  It is also thought Margaret Johnson apt the phrase Gone with the Wind    because of the materials used in creating them.  Some of the fabrics used were Damask, Faille, Satin, Silk, Taffeta, Velvet and Wool.  For years these buttons laid unnoticed by button collectors, and like most uncared-for fabrics, moths devoured them until their existence disappeared like the wind…Gone with the Wind.

These button are officially classified in the NBS Blue Book (2009-2010 and 2011-2012) as: 

 Section 5 – Fabrics/Textiles

5-3.2 Two or more-piece molded tops.  Two or more separately covered molds combined to form a composite woven fabric button.  The fabrics may be the same or contrasting.

May include additional other material embellishment (OME).

5-3.2.1 Fancy Tops.  Center raised mold is shaped (non-circular).  Glass center on single mold fabric base does not qualify, and belongs in other material embellishment (OME) class.

These lovely and often overlooked buttons range from $3.00-$15.00+.  Grab them while you can as there is a piqued interest by current button collectors.

 

 

Aren't these sweet buttons?

Happy button hunting, Tami

 

 

Estate Sale Treasures

It's been a really harsh Winter and treasure hunting has been limited.  Last Thursday morning's temp of 33 degrees was almost a heatwave.  It brought out lots of dealers and pickers hoping to find treasures.

I was #32 in line with about 30 more people behind me... and I was an hour early!

9 am came, the front door open and the Estate Sale was on!

This house was packed.  I asked where the buttons were and was told in a room, where they weren't.  However, this room had lots of beautiful odds & ends of of vintage fabrics and trims.  So, I shopped it first and slowly found my way to the basement where the buttons apparently 'had' been.  They were picked over and only a few remained; however, I am delighted with the ones I found.

Here are my finds for the day

 

1860-1880s Black Glass dress trim; Stamped steel buckle -late 19th century

(Top) 1930-40s Green glass button w/paint; Late 19th c. Pearl sash buckle;

Group of Cut Steel tri-tinted OME Steel Cup buttons 19th c.

(Bottom) White glass button w/painted grape design 1880s; Horn with inlaid abalone and silver (missing some inlay) late 19th c.; Victorian glass ear of corn;

group of Shell carved buttons, probably late 19th c.

Horseshoe trim: Celluloid with black glass OME, late 19th c.

Art Deco Design under Glass buckle with original fabric still attached 

Individual buttons are different designs/techniques of Celluloid buttons.

Matching pair are Celluloid Bubble Top buttons.  The other two are Tight Top Celluloid buttons.

  Some of the jewelry pieces had missing stones, but I have salvaged stones to repair them.

One of my first jobs was a PBX telephone operator... I love this Valentine!

Close up cuteness

 The artwork in this book is so adorable!

A few cabinet cards 

and photos

 Oodles of unusual tin molds

 This precious porcelain ballerina pivots (dances)

Wonderful vintage textiles

There's something about small treasures that tug at my heart...take me home.