A Pearly Queen

The button factory at Sees, Sarthe who made and designed every kind, turtle, jet, pearl, leather, p.mache, etc.
sold to all the Paris couturiers, Balenciaga, Dior, etc.

 These lovely little folders, silvery grey 19c. borders, with little blue strips slotted in, each holding 12 m.o.p. buttons, are a real delight. I had several dozen of them and plenty of extra strips to choose and insert, all from a lady who had a vast store of buttons. She had them passed on to her in the late 20s. when her friend, the proprietor of the biggest button factory in France, retired and she sold his remaining stock at a stall in Paris for many years. She then bore a handicapped son and retreated to Burgundy to give him a country upbringing and put thousands of buttons away up in the attic, reached by a steep ladder.   Her daughter started taking a few cards to local brocante fairs and she told me their history.

After several visits, when I realised what a lovely cache she had, I bought the lot and I am still selling them.
Correction! now every last one sold!
More about the rare Dorset and German handmade linen buttons in a later Blog and more button biographies from time to time as there seem to be as many button collectors as button patterns!  But I do not deal in them any more!