Collecting Vintage Buttons

Collecting Buttons

Collecting Old Buttons Who would want to keep a pile of old buttons? It’s a valid question with an easy answer. In the past buttons weren’t mass-produced like they are today. It took someone with skill to craft a button and there was a lot of work involved. Because of this, you might have thrown away your old jacket, but you definitely would have kept the buttons. Before you knew it, the buttons on your son’s new jacket were a hundred years old and suddenly worth keeping. Collecting old buttons can be a neat way to securely fasten a bit of history into the present day, so to speak. There … Continue reading →

Collecting Vintage Aprons

collecting_aprons

Pick up any vintage apron in any venue a thrift shop, an old trunk your grandmother kept, or at a craft fair, and you will instantly realize that it is not just a garment to be worn to protect clothing while cooking. As you rub the material lightly through your fingers, do the meals that were lovingly prepared by the lady of the house come to mind? You have never met the woman, yet you feel a certain kinship to her as you touch a garment that was probably worn often. No, it is much more than a mere piece of cloth that the cook wrapped around the precious Sunday … Continue reading →

Collecting Theater Programs

theater programs

Though a playbill and a theater program basically mean the same thing today, it wasn’t always so. A play bill during the 19th century meant a printed, large piece of paper that announced the opening of a play and was put up in public areas for all to see. A program on the other hand, was used to signify information about concerts and the music being played. By the middle of the 19th century, a theater program was a pamphlet containing the list of actors and their characters. These were handed out to people enjoying the evening’s entertainment. Of course because they were given away freely, programs from an earlier … Continue reading →