Background/Story
This 1 1/2″ metal button was all over brown when I found it in grandma’s button tin. After the 2022 Winterfest webinar on repairing and cleaning I decided to clean this button. I used mineral oil on a soft cloth first because the grime seemed to be fairly thick. I continued on with a jewelry cloth and lots of elbow grease. I used Qtips with cardboard sticks to rub a little mineral oil in the small areas. Finally lots more rubbing and buffing with a soft cotton cloth. The result was gorgeous.
This all metal button has a japanned back with a wobble TIB shank. The top is attached with a thin gold rim. The button has three borders. The outer gold border is 1/4″ wide with a thin raised scallop pattern. On the inner portion of the border are raised curvilinear double C scrolls . Inside that border is a circle that can be rotated partially around the outer border. This center has a 1/8″ brass border with 4 equi-distant 1/16″ cut steels. Between each of the 4 cut steels the border consists of a side view of a stylized plant form daisy with 2 layers of 2 leaves on each side of the flower that end in a cut steel. In the center of the button is a cut steel a little over 1/8″. The cut steel is set in a brass 6 lobed border accented with dots of brass between each lobe. The center itself is rose colored gold metal with an all-over spiral pattern of tiny lines alternating with rows of spiral dots and rows with a pattern of one dot then a pair of narrow pinnate leaves repeated along the row.
