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The button collection presented on this site was the
fruit of my grandmother, Anna Claudia Cope. She was born in 1883 and
died in 1959. She was a consummate collector of all kinds of memorabilia
including stamps, cachets, coins, and other items. Her first love of all
the collections was for the buttons. As a young boy in the 1940s I
visited her often since in those times, grandparents were the caretakers
of choice. During most stays, I would beg her to let me get the buttons
out. I don't ever remember her being too busy.
So, we would spend time together with her telling me
about the button types and stories related to how she acquired
certain buttons. I remember few of the details but terms such as jets,
calicos, pie crust, jewels, and goofies are clear in my memory. The black glass
buttons
were always called jets. I feel fortunate that, in those days, I did not
have the option of watching Sponge Bob Square Pants! I remember
the games, stories, and even some names of the ladies of the button club in
Santa Ana, California where she lived.
When we would take family trips, grandmother would become
uncharacteristically assertive in requiring whoever was driving to stop
at the antique and second hand shops in towns we would pass through. Remember when all
the roads went "through" the towns and not around them? We would find
the proprietors and she would cajole them into letting her go through their
button box. She usually found something she was missing. She was not a
person of means and therefore could not pay much for the treasures. She
didn't have to though, since it was hard not to respond to her
sweet demeanor.
She was featured in the local newspaper with an article
on her button collecting just months before she was killed in an
automobile accident. She claims in the article that she never paid more
than a dollar for a button and usually much less. She also points out
that a dark colored "gay nineties" button which she bought at a church bazaar was
advertised as once gracing the gown of Mary Pickford, star of the silent
motion pictures. (The button she referred to in the article is one of
the center buttons on Frame 7).
My mother told me that after the newspaper article, she
became very motivated to better document her collection and write down
her views and recollections of the buttons. Unfortunately, she did
not accomplish that goal before the untimely accident that took her
life.
She was an important influence in my formative years
and the memories I have from her loving interaction provide an extra
measure of interest I feel in working with button collection she
started.
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