Hi, I'm Roy Lambertson, from Richmond, Virginia. I'm more of a seller than a collector. My wife and I have sold antiques and collectibles on Ebay since 1999. I'm in the process of selling off a large lot of buttons we have had for a while, and thought I'd try to learn something about them in the process.
I don't collect anything in particular, just a few things which catch my fancy from time to time. I have a few navy buttons, which I like because my dad was in the navy. I like things from my birth year, 1951, and fishing stuff (mostly old beat up stuff which my dad or me used together). I've enjoyed sorting this group of buttons, especially the pearls.
Speaking of pearls, back in the early 1980s there was an article in AUDOBON magazine about the freshwater mussels of the United States. Apparently they were the backbone of the pearl button industry, which was quite large in it's day. My interest in environmental issues prompted me to read that, then years later I got involved in selling antiques and began running across pearl buttons.
They have a lot of appeal for me, and I like all the accessories, like buckles and cufflinks made from mother of pearl. I have sort of an arcane interest in whether the species of mussel could be determined by examining a button. Lots of mussel species went extinct as the country was developed, rivers were dammed, silt from farming and construction operations clouded rivers, etc. If I remember the article correctly, imports from the far east were very common in the later years of pearl button making, as domestic shell became more difficult to obtain.
Well...enough about that! I'm looking forward to learning from you all.
Roy