Laurie very kindly gave my latest
give-away a shout-out on the
Button Floozies blog today so I thought I would share a little button trivia and some new buttons to welcome the new followers.
This page is from a 1931 Montgomery Wards catalog. Click it larger so you can read the descriptions and prices. Vegetable ivory for 23¢ a dozen, mirror-backs for 10¢ a dozen, rhinestones 7¢ a dozen. The prices sound remarkable until you remember the average wage was 25¢ an hour. New buttons are actually MUCH less expensive now! They had to have been quite a luxury during the Great Depression and consequently women saved them in those button boxes we are so thrilled to find today. Think about how a card of new buttons today relates to your hourly wage.
So, speaking of buttons, I blogged about these wonderful walnut slices last Fall. I found these whole-walnut and two half-walnut buttons on line. The seller said she didn't think they were real walnuts.
I disagree and think they are real, indeed. I think they are Black Walnuts, not the larger English Walnuts we typically use for baking and snacking.
If you look closely at the cut side it does look like the inside of a walnut shell that has been filled in with some other material. I grew up on a farm where we had many Black Walnut trees. The nuts are smaller, extremely hard and nearly impossible to crack. I can remember sitting outside whacking them with a hammer, trying to harvest enough meats for my mother's Black Walnut Pie.
Thank you, Laurie, and welcome to my new followers. If you haven't already done so, there is still time to enter this week's
give-away!
6 comments:
Your walnut buttons are very unusual and interesting. I have a black walnut tree and yes the nuts are almost impossible to crack except for those wild javelinas. They love to munch on them. I never have to clean up the fallen nuts because they eat every one LOL.
Danielle
These are really interesting and from your pictures they look so different from each other and not formed from a mold. Love those walnut slices too.
Wow what a find. Living in England, I've never seen black walnuts...and I've never seen walnuts growing full stop. Thanks for an interesting post. Hugs lin
What neat buttons! I have never seen them before, but love them!! Thanks for sharing!! Happy weekend! xo Heather
I love that ad, and those buttons! If you ever want black walnuts, let me know ... most years we have so many we can't walk through the yard until the squirrels get busy. (I think they inspired the phrase 'a tough nut to crack.')
I agree those are real walnuts you have in those buttons! And that button ad is too much fun. Imagine buttons being a luxury...
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