A few weeks ago my gran sent me her button tin. I had known for a while that she had it in mind to pass it my way, and I expected a hoard of buttons from past garments and sewing projects. I had no idea that the contents of this rather beautiful tin would be quite so old.
It turns out that my great great grandfather was a tailor by trade, so you see a love of buttons is in my blood! Many of these buttons belonged to him, and are now so old and delicate that a few of them started to disintegrate as I stirred my fingers around the tin.
A collection of old leather buckles was included...
And a leather button so old that it looks rather alien to my eye!
Others are more recent and clearly my gran's own buttons, some being quite 1950s and '60s in style. Even so, the cardboard some are attached to is now very delicate.
I'm starting to slowly clean up some of the more robust buttons when I get a spare few minutes here and there, and I'm not sure what I can do for the older ones other than wrap them up safely in their cheery yellow tin and treasure the thought, next time I'm making a batch of my own buttons, that I'm now the proud owner of a piece of my own personal button history.
So many people have special memories attached to their elder relatives' button tins. I had never seen this particular collection before, but as my gran turns 90 years old this Wednesday, I feel like I'm the one to have received a special gift.
