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News & Events Mid-America News Show Calendar State Event Calendars Regular Features The Antique Detective Antique Detective Q&A Common Sense Antiques Refurnished Thoughts Traveling with Ken Good Eye Books for Collectors Directories & Classifieds The Finder: Unique Shops Lodgings Directory Museum Directory Aviation Museums Wineries in the Heartland Classifieds Web Links Archived Features Antiquing in Colorado Dealer Profile Archive Editor's Notebook Heirloom Recipes Helpful Hints for Collectors Is This An Antique? Past Cover Features Reflecting History 2005 Best Of Winners *Destinations 2006*	Discover Mid-America — October 2004 Buckles Can you imagine life without buckles? My watchstrap, belts, suitcase fastenings…the list could continue. Imagine what the cave men did when they wanted to hold two pieces of leather together. They probably used lacing, puncturing leather with a sharp stick or bone. We know that many early people laced but at some time, someone thought about using another natural material — wood, bone, ivory, a shell — to hold two things together. The creativity of the human mind is wondrous. The evolution of tying two ends together with something decorative must have taken several hundred years. We are all aware that at the famous courts of Europe in the seventeenth century, the denizens wore shoe buckles. Later illustrations showed buckles as decoration on sleeves, chests, pant legs — these usually being of the ordinary variety (no elastic in those days). And what would a black patent leather Mary Jane shoe be without its proper buckle? As an antique dealer, I have handled many sorts of buckles and have customers that collect them along with buttons. I have had a love affair with the very decorative and highly colored celluloid buckles of the 1920s but the only thing I could think of doing with them was to sew them onto a nice cloth band or leave them in boxes (where they DID stay for a long time). The problem with celluloid is that age and temperature differences makes the celluloid crack or discolor, rending them useless. The Mother of Pearl buckles of the 1930s are especially beautiful when carved, making them works of art. These are more difficult to find but they hold up well and are quite usable as buckles or incorporated into distinctive jewelry. During the ‘30s and ‘40s, the use of wood for buttons, brooches and buckles was widespread. These seemed to lean more toward a Deco style. My thought is that wood could be handled more easily in angles than curves, making some really nice looking additions to causal dress. Included in this time period were the knotted leather buttons that are very common. The buckles did not fare as well simply because buckles get harder wear than buttons do. Rhinestone studded buckles of the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s are charming to dress up a black dress, especially. These buckles are still available in the marketplace. The better jewelers of those decades serviced a good market in buckles with semi and precious stones. Looking at photos of the social arbiters and glamour queens of the time, the buckles were not just a buckle, but presented as jewelry, attached via a strap or a drape of an evening dress. On a recent visit to San Antonio, I was leafing through a high-end Western art magazine when an article on contemporary Western buckles caught my attention. I had no idea that there was such an active market for custom-made buckles for men and women. There are silversmiths who work solely on buckles for this high-end trade. By “high end,” I’m talking $25,000 for one buckle! The photos in the magazine were absolutely stunning. The designs were from simple to quite elaborate, some with inlays of gold or minerals. The simple toggle of the cave man had come a long way. There are millions of plain overall buckles, workmen’s pants buckles and military buckles in many an American (or other nationality) sewing basket. This utilitarian item that we used several times a day is quite an invention. So the next time you fasten your belt, give a moment to the development of this very useful item. Like the mousetrap...it there any way to make a better one? Norma Crews is a native Texan, graduate of Texas Tech, former teacher and rancher, mother of three grown sons and six grandchildren, and raised in South Texas on a ranch as a member of two pioneer families. Upon retiring from teaching and ranching, she and her husband James became pickers for large Texas shops, before branching into doing shows for a number of years in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. She currently resides in Neosho, MO. > Is This An Antique? Archive — past columns	{rightside ad cell}
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Lodgings Directory
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Antiquing in Colorado
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for Collectors
Is This An Antique?
Past Cover Features
Reflecting History

2005 Best Of Winners
Destinations 2006

Discover Mid-America — October 2004

Buckles

Can you imagine life without buckles? My watchstrap, belts, suitcase fastenings…the list could continue. Imagine what the cave men did when they wanted to hold two pieces of leather together. They probably used lacing, puncturing leather with a sharp stick or bone. We know that many early people laced but at some time, someone thought about using another natural material — wood, bone, ivory, a shell — to hold two things together.

The creativity of the human mind is wondrous. The evolution of tying two ends together with something decorative must have taken several hundred years. We are all aware that at the famous courts of Europe in the seventeenth century, the denizens wore shoe buckles. Later illustrations showed buckles as decoration on sleeves, chests, pant legs — these usually being of the ordinary variety (no elastic in those days). And what would a black patent leather Mary Jane shoe be without its proper buckle?

As an antique dealer, I have handled many sorts of buckles and have customers that collect them along with buttons. I have had a love affair with the very decorative and highly colored celluloid buckles of the 1920s but the only thing I could think of doing with them was to sew them onto a nice cloth band or leave them in boxes (where they DID stay for a long time). The problem with celluloid is that age and temperature differences makes the celluloid crack or discolor, rending them useless.

The Mother of Pearl buckles of the 1930s are especially beautiful when carved, making them works of art. These are more difficult to find but they hold up well and are quite usable as buckles or incorporated into distinctive jewelry.

During the ‘30s and ‘40s, the use of wood for buttons, brooches and buckles was widespread. These seemed to lean more toward a Deco style. My thought is that wood could be handled more easily in angles than curves, making some really nice looking additions to causal dress. Included in this time period were the knotted leather buttons that are very common. The buckles did not fare as well simply because buckles get harder wear than buttons do.

Rhinestone studded buckles of the ‘20s, ‘30s and ‘40s are charming to dress up a black dress, especially. These buckles are still available in the marketplace. The better jewelers of those decades serviced a good market in buckles with semi and precious stones. Looking at photos of the social arbiters and glamour queens of the time, the buckles were not just a buckle, but presented as jewelry, attached via a strap or a drape of an evening dress.

On a recent visit to San Antonio, I was leafing through a high-end Western art magazine when an article on contemporary Western buckles caught my attention. I had no idea that there was such an active market for custom-made buckles for men and women. There are silversmiths who work solely on buckles for this high-end trade. By “high end,” I’m talking $25,000 for one buckle!

The photos in the magazine were absolutely stunning. The designs were from simple to quite elaborate, some with inlays of gold or minerals. The simple toggle of the cave man had come a long way.

There are millions of plain overall buckles, workmen’s pants buckles and military buckles in many an American (or other nationality) sewing basket. This utilitarian item that we used several times a day is quite an invention.

So the next time you fasten your belt, give a moment to the development of this very useful item. Like the mousetrap...it there any way to make a better one?

Norma Crews is a native Texan, graduate of Texas Tech, former teacher and rancher, mother of three grown sons and six grandchildren, and raised in South Texas on a ranch as a member of two pioneer families.

Upon retiring from teaching and ranching, she and her husband James became pickers for large Texas shops, before branching into doing shows for a number of years in Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. She currently resides in Neosho, MO.

> Is This An Antique? Archive — past columns

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