"Buttons" may be synonymous with low value, but they can be worth thousands of pounds, with estimates at a London auction on June 20th reaching sterling (€9,617) per lot.
Ms Suzette Shields, costume and textile specialist at Christie's in London, says "very good 18th century buttons" might make "somewhere in the region of £600 to £1,000 per button".
She expects a set of six enamel buttons depicting equestrian scenes from about 1780 to fetch from £4,000 to £6,000 and a set of four French painted glass Revolutionary buttons, one with the slogan "Vive La Nation", to go for £3,000 to £4,000.
It's difficult to know which buttons are valuable but it's best not to discard any unless they're obviously very modern, she says. "Even some of the 20th century buttons are collectable, particularly if they're still usable. But the ones to look out for tend to be quite large, perhaps with painted scenes on them. If they look early, quite large and are in good condition, then it's worth having them checked out."
Buttons from 18th century gentlemen's costumes or frock coats, which tend to be quite large, are particularly of interest, she says.
"As with everything else, the condition is very important and also what the subject matter is. For example, things like French Revolution buttons would be of great interest. Also, anything to do with the USA in the 18th century - George Washington, that kind of thing, would be interesting
"Button collecting seemed to be a huge thing in the 1940s, particularly in America . . . People built up enormous collections of 18th, 19th and even early 20th century buttons. For us, really the most interesting ones would be the earlier 18th century ones."
An 18th century brass coat button with "Long Live the President" engraved around GW for George Washington is expected to fetch £1,500 to £2,500 as part of a lot in the forthcoming auction.
While it can be difficult to date a button, the backs of the buttons can provide a clue. Eighteenth century buttons tended to be quite flat. "They get a little bit more shaped into the 19th century.
"Also the subject matter is quite a good way of dating them. Then again you have to be careful it's not a 19th century copy."
Despite the estimates, she admits that the prices the buttons will achieve remains "a bit of an unknown quantity because this is the first time that I believe anybody has sold such a large collection at auction".
Rebus buttons - conundrum buttons with a series of letters and symbols, which when deciphered make phrases such as "Mon coeur est a elle" - are estimated at £400 to £600 sterling. Nineteenth century buttons documenting the insect world of snails, ladybirds, beetles and spiders range in estimate from hundreds to several thousand pounds.
The 100 lots of buttons in all shapes, sizes, materials and colours are expected to fetch in the region of £50,000. Amassed by a single collector during the 1930s and 1940s, the pieces mostly date from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Mr Gerald Kenyon, of Gerald Kenyon Antiques in Dublin, says there is "no market" for buttons, with the notable exception of silver and gold 18th century buttons, hunt buttons with coats of arms and military buttons, which are keenly collected.
"Every grandmother has a box full of buttons," he says, but while there is the possibility of some of them being valuable, they are not likely to be, since buttons were produced in vast quantities in the 19th century.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
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