Save That Button

QUESTION: My father left me his collection of political buttons. While most are from the last few decades, he managed to find some from the early 20th century. What can you tell me about the history of political buttons and are they worth keeping?

ANSWER: With the recent presidential election less than a week old and much of the country in shock over the outcome, it’s no wonder you’re asking about your collection of political buttons. In the past, these

have been a major part of presidential campaigns. But unless people were working for the candidates, were delegates to either party’s conventions, or were party committee members, political memorabilia seemed to be conspicuously absent from this election.

Back in the 1960s and 70s, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing someone wearing a political button or see a car sporting a bumper sticker for a candidate. With the prominence of television and social media, people didn’t seem to be outwardly showing their support for either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump—and that’s what tripped up the pollsters. So how important is the campaign button?

The early 20th century saw a greater array of presidential campaign memorabilia than ever before in American history. Presidential hopefuls handed out plates, bandannas, posters, paperweights—and, yes, buttons. Candidates didn’t have the funds available  for radio and television ads back then.

Even today the lure of presidential campaign memorabilia remains for most any pocketbook. Tin tabs for Lyndon Johnson or Nelson Rockefeller go for a dollar or two. Jugate buttons feature images of both the presidential and vice presidential candidates on the same button. A Franklin Roosevelt/James Cox jugate button has sold for as much as $50,000.

One of the treasures of the 1904 campaign effort of Alton Parker and Henry Davis was a jugate paperweight with both a shield and flags in color. That same year the United States Glass Company produced a glass tray with the frosted image of Teddy Roosevelt. The oval-shaped bread plate also bore his campaign slogan, "A Square Deal."

Republicans William Taft and James Sherman offered a unique milk glass bank in 1908. After the election, the red, white and blue containers could be used as banks.

Watch fobs were all the rage in the early 1900s, and most presidential candidates handed them out. In 1908, William Jennings Bryan offered one of the most attractive, with the message, "White House Lock Holds the Key."

Like Bryan, Teddy Roosevelt made use of numerous campaign items during his election efforts. His postcards of 1912 first endorsed William Taft but later his western-style cotton bandanna pledged, "My hat is in the ring." The National Kerchief Company printed thousands of these bandannas for TR's Bull Moose Party convention in 1912. The New York Times carried this account of their impact: A woman stood up and waved a bandanna in the most frantic fashion. The woman was beaming...The woman was Mrs. Teddy Roosevelt!"

Many of the campaign treasures changed as the nation moved into the Roaring Twenties. Lithographed tin trays, paperweights, ribbon badges, and watch fobs were  popular until 1920. After that license plates, tin tabs, pennants, and items of jewelry joined the wide array of election mementos already available.

The campaign of 1920 produced one of the most sought after political items of the century. After years of harmony with Woodrow Wilson, the Democrats had become badly divided by 1920 and didn’t spend much on campaigning. So campaign buttons for James Cox and running mate Franklin Roosevelt, for example, were relatively few. One particular Cox-Roosevelt button brought $5,000 in 1976, $33,000 in 1981, and $50,000 in 1990.

Head gear also grew more colorful in the 1920s. It ranged from a red, white, and blue beanie for Warren Harding in 1920 to a brown derby in behalf of Al Smith whose trademark was such a hat in 1928.

America's increasing preoccupation with the automobile in the 1920s and 1930s gave a natural spin to car-related memorabilia, including bumper stickers.

The market for presidential campaign memorabilia is booming. The most desired campaign buttons sell for lots of money. But those with smaller budgets have plenty of opportunities to buy pieces of electoral history at reasonable prices. Original campaign buttons, including those bearing the likenesses of some of the most popular candidates, sell online for less than $30 dollars each.

And as with all collectibles, it’s better to collect items, in this case buttons, that aren’t mass produced but are from smaller batches and special events. Do you have a button for Hillary Clinton? If so, you had better hold on to it.

Black as Jet

QUESTION: I recently purchased a beautiful shiny black brooch that’s made of a very hard material, almost like stone. I’ve never seen anything like it. Can you tell me what it’s made of and something about it?

ANSWER: It looks like you’ve discovered a piece of Victorian mourning jewelry. One of the primary materials used to make pieces like your brooch was jet, a hard type of coal found along the Yorkshire coast of England.

On December 14, 1861, Queen  Victoria woke to find that her beloved husband, Albert, had died in his sleep of typhoid. Deeply distressed, Victoria went into full mourning and the England, out of respect and love for her, followed her example. An atmosphere of grief permeated English society. It was customary during this time for a widow to remain in full mourning for two years, and then half mourning for six months, but Queen Victoria never stopped grieving.

During the last half of the 19th century in the United States, especially after the Civil War, death was rampant and grief overshadowed both the North and South. More than a million lives were lost. When the war officially ended on April 9, 1865, a crippled nation already reeling  from the devastation of war became shrouded with grief.

Symbolic images of sorrow, love and devotion were the custom at the time. Men and women wore carved and molded pieces of mourning jewelry, an acceptable behavior during the  bereavement period. But by the 1890s, fashion and attitude had lightened, and people tucked the mementos of grief away for posterity.

In the early 1860s, the material of choice for black jewelry was jet, a hard type of lignite coal.  The best jet, found along the rocky Yorkshire shoreline, had a compact mineral structure making it strong enough to withstand carving and turning on a lathe. Jet also retained a high polish and resisted fading. As a result, an industry grew up around the mining and fabrication of jet during the mid-19th century in the small coastal village of Whitby.

At one time, the natural supply of jet was so plentiful that people could find substantial chunks of the shiny black substance washed up along the shore. Eventually however, the supply of true jet dwindled, so a replacement had to be found. Jet miners discovered coal in lower York which they mined from estuary beds where the tide washed into fresh water channels. However, this alternative jet was inferior to the original. It was soft and didn’t respond to carving and polishing as well as the Whitby variety.

The jet industry then turned to other sources for their supplies, importing jet from Spain and Cannel bituminous coal from Scotland to Whitby for use in making mourning jewelry. While these types of coal lacked hardness and luster, both were still better than the coal from southern Yorkshire. Artisans soon began carving jewelry components from these alternatives, and then combined them with decorative components fashioned from true Whitby jet.

When supplies of alternative jet became difficult to come by, fabricators sought other black materials, including black onyx and French jet; also called Vauxhall. Both became equally popular. In reality, French jet and Vauxhall are black glass, and it became an excellent substitute for true jet because it remained shiny and wouldn’t fade. It’s often difficult to tell the difference between authentic and faux jet by sight alone. Handling the materials immediately tells the difference. Black glass is heavy and cold to the touch because it doesn’t conduct heat, whereas true jet is light and room temperature. The details on carved jet items are often clean and sharp, while molded black glass may not be as defined and can also show signs of chipping or flaking.

Jet wasn't the only black colored`natural material that jewelry makers used to carve into mourning items. Bog Oak, a brownish black fossilized peat found deep in the bogs of Ireland,  is dark, lightweight and room temperature. It may appear to have a slight wood grain visible through its matte surface. Jewelry makers also used ebony, the heavy, tight-grained dark wood from the ebonaceae tree, to carve into jewelry items.

But for the Victorians, jet symbolized the deep emotional tie to a loved one through death.

A Romantic Tale

QUESTION: Ever since I was a kid, I’ve loved the look of Blue Willow china. My mother had a set that she brought out for special occasions. I used to love to clean my plate so I could see the delicate Chinese blue decoration on the white plate. Recently, I bought an older pink plate made by Homer Laughlin here in the U.S. This is the first time I’ve seen this pattern in another color. What can you tell me about the origin of the plate’s design and about other colors of glaze used to produce it?

ANSWER: The Blue Willow pattern has been in existence since the late 18th century. For over 200 years, it has been one of the most popular china patterns ever made. These mostly blue and white dishes could be found in many households, from the mansions of the wealthy to the more modest homes of the middle class. Today, the pattern can even be purchased in supermarkets.

Many people have looked at the three figures going over the bridge, the pagoda, the boat, and the two birds hovering above the willows and wondered what story inspired  the scene.

The pattern featuring this scene became popular when English ceramic artists combined and adapted motifs inspired the hand-painted blue and white ware then imported from China. In developing the Blue Willow pattern, English potters were finally able to produce a dinnerware to compete with the Chinese imports. At the same time, a new decoration technique using engraved tissue paper transfers allowed potteries to cut costs and mass produce china to sell at a reasonable price.

English potteries produced many different Chinese-inspired landscape patterns using this process, both on bone china and porcelain wares, and on white earthenware. The Blue Willow pattern became the most popular and has remained in production ever since. The majority of pieces have a white background with blue images, but some potteries have used other colors in various pastel tints.

No one knows exactly when the pattern first appeared, but during the 1780s various engravers including Thomas Lucas and Thomas Minton began producing Chinoiserie landscape scenes based on Chinese ceramic originals.  These included scenes with willows, boats, pavilions and birds which artists later incorporated into the Blue Willow pattern. In 1793, Thomas Minton set up his own studio in Stoke-on-Trent, from which he produced willow patterns for Spode and other potteries. Most historians agree that Minton probably produced the Blue Willow pattern known today for Spode around 1790.

Normally, the pattern fills a circular or oval area on a piece of china, surrounded by a decorative border. The waterside landscape represents a garden in the lower right side, in which a large two-story pavilion stands. Approached by steps, the lower story has three large pillars with arched windows or openings between. The roof and gable, shown in three-quarter perspective, is surmounted by a smaller room with a similar roof, and there are curling finials at the gables and eaves. Bushes and trees with varied fruit and foliage, including a large tree rising behind with clusters of oranges, surround the pavilion. The roof of another pavilion appears among the trees to the right and a smaller pavilion stands to the left projecting from the waterside bank. A path through the garden leads to the front of the scene and a fence of diapered panels set in a zigzag fashion crosses the foreground.

On its left side the garden forms an irregular and indented bank into the water. In the  foreground of which a large branching willow tree with four clusters of three leafy fronds leans out. From this point a bridge, usually of three arches, crosses left to an island or bank with a house having a tall arched doorway, and a small tree behind. There are usually three figures on the bridge going away from the garden. Above and beyond this the water forms an open expanse, with a boat at the center left containing two little house-like cabins, propelled by a figure with a punt-pole. In the upper left quarter is a distant island or promontory with pavilions and trees, including a fir. Above the scene in the center is a pair of flying doves, one turning and one descending, their heads and beaks turned closely towards one another in amorous conjunction.

Though there are variations, the Blue Willow pattern always includes the bridge, the garden fence, the central pair of birds, and the particular details of the pavilions and surrounding trees

To promote sales of Minton's Willow pattern, Spode created stories based on the elements in the design.  The most popular is a romantic tale of a wealthy Mandarin who had a beautiful daughter Koong-se. She fell in love with Change, her father's servant. This made her father angry because he wasn’t of the same social class as Koong-se. He dismissed the young man and built a high fence around his house to keep the lovers apart. The Mandarin planned for his daughter to marry a rich merchant, who arrived by boat to claim his bride, bearing a box of jewels as a gift. The wedding was to take place on the day the blossom fell from the willow tree.

On the eve of the daughter's wedding to the merchant, Chang slipped into the palace unnoticed. As the lovers escaped with the jewels, the alarm sounded. They ran over a bridge, chased by the Mandarin, whip in hand. Eventually they escaped on the merchant's ship to the safety of a secluded island, where they would have lived happily ever after. But one day, the merchant learned of their refuge. Hungry for revenge, he sent soldiers, who captured the lovers and put them to death. The gods, moved by their plight, transformed the lovers into a pair of doves. However, early plates lack the doves, suggesting that Spode added this detail to the story later on.

Some people, including author Allan Drummond would have readers believe that the pattern was the result of this story, but in fact, it was the other way around. The romantic story was a marketing tool that Spode used to sell its wares—nothing more, nothing less.