Enamel Buttons - Will You Be Mine?
by Clare Bazely
aka "abuttonlady"
eBay Member

There is something enchanting about the unobtainable. The more difficult it is to find something, the more we want it.

So it is with enamel buttons.

The less expensively made, mass-produced enamel buttons of the late 1800's were once plentiful. With abundant period charm, they are popular with collectors and finding them in a collectible venue in recent years has been challenging and expensive. Nevertheless, hope springs eternal, the search is the thing and finding brings joy. The advent of eBay makes the search pleasurable and fruitful.

The lovely enamel button is like a wearable Valentine. Painted with pretty ladies, couples, flowers and birds they seem kin to the paper love tokens we exchange on February 14th. Enameling, a truly ancient technique, may be one of the oldest decorating arts applied to buttons.

Examples of the art have been found from as early as 1000 BC. Metals are decorated with a fused-on, glassy glaze. Gold, silver, brass or copper may be the base on which to create little masterpieces using the same methods as the ancients, differing only in the use of machines and electricity as opposed to hand tools and wood fired kilns. The way these metals are prepared to receive the powdered glass is seen in four differing methods.

In cloisonné enamel, walled enclosures are built up or soldered on the metal surface of the button and then filled with powdered glass and heat fused. This technique was perfected in the Far East; therefore most of the cloisonné buttons found are from China or Japan.

For the production of Champleve enamel, the metal surface is gouged out to form depressions which are then filled and fired. In Europe this method was favored over the painstaking laying on of wires-for-walls in the Cloisonné technique. Most Champleve enamel buttons of the 1800's are produced of machine stamped brass and then hand enameled.

In the Russian-favored Basse-taille decoration, you see an overall symmetrical pattern, stamped on the metal, in low relief and then covered with a transparent enamel of one color.

The sweethearts of the enamel buttons are the painted enamels, also known as emaux peints. Produced mostly in France, the colors on these are not separated by metal dividers. Glass pigments are very finely ground and mixed with water. Like painting with colored sand, each color is applied to an already fired background, usually white, and fired successively with a fired transparent layer of clear to seal and give depth and brilliance.

Look closely at your button finds to discern what you have. Training the eye will enhance your eBay browsing and ready you for the moment that brilliant find occurs and you delightedly press that Bid or Buy It Now button.

Clare Bazely recently held an online workshop entitled 'Searching and Buying Collectible Buttons on eBay'. To view a transcript of the workshop and learn more about these fascinating collectibles, click here.

©Clare Bazley