Club members pressing all the right buttons

Press a button against your cheek. If it's cold, the button is made of glass. If not, the button is probably plastic. Clicking a button against a drinking glass or even teeth can also distinguish a rare glass button from other types.

These tips were conveyed by Nancy Howery, a member of the Southern Nevada Button Society, during the group's Aug. 2 meeting at the Henderson Senior Center.

A button collector for 12 years, Howery's lesson on glass buttons was "just a smattering overview," including details about color, backing and how to determine the size of a button, a complicated procedure that can get a collector kicked out of national button competitions if not executed precisely.

"I love talking about buttons," she said. "It's relaxing."

Howery was the second person to join the 10-year-old club. June Goodyear founded the group in 1994, having tired of the long drive to the Summerlin button club meetings. That club has since folded.

"As far as I know this is the only button club in Clark County," she said.

Goodyear has collected hundreds of buttons over the years, a hobby that runs in her family. She is related through marriage to Amasa Goodyear, the inventor of rubber buttons and the first manufacturer of pearl buttons in America in the early 1800s.

"He taught his two sons, Charles and Nelson, about making rubber buttons," she said.

Goodyear married Nelson Goodyear's grandson, but her blood relatives also had an interest in buttons and sewing.

"My grandmother was a dress designer for Paramount Studios," she said. "She made a navy blue velvet gown for Mae West."

Goodyear was inspired to start a button club by a woman she met at an antique show. She went home and unearthed her relatives' old buttons and began her collection.

"Everybody has a box of buttons from their mother and grandmother," she said. "There's all different kinds of buttons made of all different kinds of materials."

About 10 people attended the recent society meeting, some just to listen, while others negotiated sales and trades.

Goodyear, wearing a button T-shirt, sat in front of a display of "Goofies," or children's buttons, including snowmen and aliens. Other buttons took on the shapes of ships, crosses and crowns.

While a collector can estimate the age of certain buttons by studying their backs, some buttons can double or triple in value over decades.

"Some people are not aware of the value of buttons, so you never know what you'll get at yard sales," Goodyear said.

Most members brought samples of their own collections to showcase. The large meeting table held jeweled buttons, pearly buttons and buttons shaped like flowers, fans and bugs. Some were made of celluloid.

According to Howery, glass buttons are rarely produced today. She said crates of them have recently been discovered in factories in Czechoslovakia, and American collectors have been making trips overseas to retrieve them.

Howery's talk touched on molded surface designs and the different colors of luster a button can take. She also discussed the characteristics of paperback buttons and fragile kaleidoscope buttons.

"Just like the toy, you look down at kaleidoscope buttons and see different things," she said. "You know it's a kaleidoscope if there's a piece of metal on back almost as large as the button."

One member showcased a framed display of award-winning moon glow buttons, arranged to look like a bunch of grapes. Howery said moon glow buttons were produced in Germany prior to World War ll, made by swirling colors together in a mold.

"They make an eye," she said. "They look billowy like a cloud."

Button competitors must use a specific circular device to measure their contest entries. If a medium-large sized button fits through a large hoop without touching the rims, it's medium. If it does touch, it's large.

Goodyear and Howery share their hobby with thousands of people. The National Button Society's 2004 membership directory lists hundreds of American members, in addition to members in Canada, Australia, England, France, Italy, New Zealand and Switzerland.

Goodyear said there are about 4,500 members throughout the world and contrary to what some may think, many button collectors are male, including the NBS president.

Howery, who will be attending the NBS Show this month in Appleton, Wis., found a set of her mother's buttons after retiring. Today she gives button lectures at churches, Kiwanis Club meetings and schools.

The Southern Nevada Button Society meets at the Henderson Senior Center at 6:30 p.m. on the first and third Mondays of each month.


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