Vintage unused cards of mother-of-pearl buttons
The small town of Argenton-Sur-Creuse, about 40 minutes drive from my house, was historically a centre of both shirt-making and of the allied trade of mother-of-pearl button manufacture. Surprisingly, up until around the 1930’s, the bulk of the mother-of pearl products available in France were actually French manufacture, using mother-of-pearl from the Atlantic Ocean. The losses France incurred during the world wars saw her turn more and more to exploiting everyday materials from her colonies and at this point much of the manufacture of mother-of-pearl began to be done in France’s colonies in Indochina. I can’t be certain of the original provenance of the mother-of-pearl in these buttons - I do know that the cards come from Argenton-Sur-Creuse. Each card contains 36 buttons of .9cm in diameter.
Argenton-Sur-Creuse has a small but wonderful Shirt Museum tucked away just off the main square, and in the museum is a little corner dedicated to mother-of-pearl button manufacture. Argenton also has a very wonderful river-scape and is worth a visit.
Please click on the photos to open them up full-sized.
To purchase, please contact me.
The small town of Argenton-Sur-Creuse, about 40 minutes drive from my house, was historically a centre of both shirt-making and of the allied trade of mother-of-pearl button manufacture. Surprisingly, up until around the 1930’s, the bulk of the mother-of pearl products available in France were actually French manufacture, using mother-of-pearl from the Atlantic Ocean. The losses France incurred during the world wars saw her turn more and more to exploiting everyday materials from her colonies and at this point much of the manufacture of mother-of-pearl began to be done in France’s colonies in Indochina. I can’t be certain of the original provenance of the mother-of-pearl in these buttons - I do know that the cards come from Argenton-Sur-Creuse. Each card contains 36 buttons of .9cm in diameter.
Argenton-Sur-Creuse has a small but wonderful Shirt Museum tucked away just off the main square, and in the museum is a little corner dedicated to mother-of-pearl button manufacture. Argenton also has a very wonderful river-scape and is worth a visit.
Please click on the photos to open them up full-sized.
To purchase, please contact me.
The small town of Argenton-Sur-Creuse, about 40 minutes drive from my house, was historically a centre of both shirt-making and of the allied trade of mother-of-pearl button manufacture. Surprisingly, up until around the 1930’s, the bulk of the mother-of pearl products available in France were actually French manufacture, using mother-of-pearl from the Atlantic Ocean. The losses France incurred during the world wars saw her turn more and more to exploiting everyday materials from her colonies and at this point much of the manufacture of mother-of-pearl began to be done in France’s colonies in Indochina. I can’t be certain of the original provenance of the mother-of-pearl in these buttons - I do know that the cards come from Argenton-Sur-Creuse. Each card contains 36 buttons of .9cm in diameter.
Argenton-Sur-Creuse has a small but wonderful Shirt Museum tucked away just off the main square, and in the museum is a little corner dedicated to mother-of-pearl button manufacture. Argenton also has a very wonderful river-scape and is worth a visit.
Please click on the photos to open them up full-sized.
To purchase, please contact me.