Victorian Picture Button, Brass Floral Layering Pendant, Sterling Silver, Mixed Metals, Cottagecore

Victorian picture buttons were assembled in layers: brass design on top, background material beneath, inner ring to hold it all, the whole thing built by hand in the 19th century. This one has a silk backing, warm brown and still intact, with a brass foliate design sitting above it and a brass inner ring framing the scene. The contrast between the silk and the brass is the same now as it was when the button was made.

The border is a double twisted rope in sterling silver. The warm brass of the button and the cool sterling of the setting complement each other the way the original maker intended the button's own materials to, each one making the other more visible.

Hallmarked Blue Piranha and .925.Pendant measures just under 1½ inches (3.8 cm) long from top of bail to bottom of pendant, and ¾ inch (1.9 cm) wide. The circle is about the size of a US penny. Weight is 4.3 grams.

Each pendant is available without a chain, so you may use your own if you prefer. If you want to add a chain, I offer different lengths and styles. Every chain comes with a 2-inch extender so you can vary the length. Please choose your chain from the options at checkout.

Your purchase arrives gift boxed, presented in a soft pouch with a story card.

Good for: the friend who disappears into antique shops and always surfaces with the one right thing. For the woman who collects warm things: old wood, amber glass, rust-colored textiles. Gift for the friend who finds beauty in things that show their age without apologizing for it.

Questions? Please message me. I'm happy to help.

About the buttons:

The "humble" button was once not-so-humble. Buttons are actually the earliest form of adornment, sewn onto garments as decoration before they had practical use as fasteners. They were once considered works of art.

Many buttons I come across are dusty and languishing in cardboard boxes or mason jars. I set them into precious metals and allow them to live a new life, with those who cherish the magic of past eras.

Victorian buttons take two forms: molded glass, and what are known as picture buttons, or pictorials. Each pictorial has a specific image, often flowers, birds, or other natural forms. These buttons are comprised of several parts, often three to five layers, which would have been hand-assembled in the 19th century. They're beautiful relics of a time long past.

Black glass buttons were in great demand during the Victorian Era. Queen Victoria famously mourned her husband for forty years, and the rest of England followed. Victorians had great interest in art, history, design, flowers, and symbolism, so almost anything could be translated to these tiny whimsies with which they adorned themselves.

The more colorful buttons are 1950s Czech glass, and are no longer made. These are known as "Moonglow" buttons, due to layering a dome of clear glass over a colored satin glass underlayer. Together the two layers create a sort of "cat's-eye" effect, with subtle shifts as the buttons catch the light. They had a short production window from about the early 1950s to the 1960s, when they were displaced by lighter weight (and less expensive) plastic buttons.