To family and friends, Shirley Conner is known affectionately as ‘The Button Lady? for reasons that can easily be seen inside and outside her home.
Inside her Oxford home are endless displays of framed buttons. Among the many displays is one of hand-carved mother-of-pearl buttons (one of her favorite to collect) arranged like a bouquet of flowers.
There are also the countless cards of buttons that fill up filing cabinets in her house, along with the many buttons in her house and garage yet to be sorted.
Outside in Conner’s yard, there’s the light blue 1990 Cadillac.
What does the Caddy have in common with buttons? The car belonged to Bev Segar, a friend of Conner’s who also buys buttons from her. Segar wanted to sell it to the Conner’s and told them she’d take $3,000 for the car ? in buttons.
‘I said, ‘Ok! You have yourself a deal!?? recalled Conner.
Three thousand dollars? worth of buttons for the Caddy came to about 10,000 buttons. Conner estimated she gave Segar about 200 cards (which have up to 50 buttons on a card) to her friend.
She ‘bought? the Cadillac in September, after having stopped at Segar’s following’no surprise’a button convention in Wisconsin. ‘She got good buttons, and I got the car,? Conner said.
Of course, The Button Lady had fun when she went to register the Cadillac at the secretary of state’s office and pay the sales tax. Six percent sales tax of $3,000 is $180. In button currency, this amounts to either 12 cards of buttons or 600 buttons.
‘I told [the SOS clerk] I paid in buttons and asked if I could give him buttons for the sales tax,? Conner recalled, laughing. ‘He said he didn’t think so.?
Ten thousand buttons might seem like a sizable mountain of clothing fasteners, but for Conner, it amounted to little of her total net worth of buttons. ‘It didn’t make a dent,? she said.
For the 81-year-old Conner, who’s been collecting buttons for about 63 years and has been an antique dealer in buttons for 39 years, such a transaction is far from unusual. She recalls once trading $1,000 in buttons for 10 antique clocks.
Back in the 1940s, her mother introduced her to buttons and today, Conner still has the collection her mother left to her.
And if you ask her what kind of buttons she has, you would be better off asking what kind she doesn’t have. Her collection has taken her all over the world, including Europe, Australia and China. She also has buttons from France, the former Czechoslovakia, the Netherlands, Micronesia and many other countries.
There’s virtually no limitiation to the human imagination, and it can be seen in her buttons. Conner’s collection includes buttons made from gem stones, wood, pearls, metal (such as gold and sterling silver), walrus teeth and fossilized bone. She also has specialty buttons, some commemorating historical events like the 1969 moon landing.
Conner likes to collect the older, historical buttons. among them are English Hallmark buttons, buttons made from French white metal, a 19th century rubber button made by Goodyear and even a brass toggle button from China–certified to have been from the 17th century–that was the type of button the emperors wore on their clothing.
Perhaps the most unusual button she has is one given to her after she’d spent more than half a century searching for it. The button looks like a World War II military dress uniform button, but it’s actually a locket.
?[Service members] could put their wife’s picture in it and wear it,? Conner said of this button, one of her rarest. ‘Nobody would know.?
Another button she’s seen in her ventures is an Air Force button that has a tiny compass inside it. Designed for pilots whose aircraft crashed, they could use it to find their way while traveling.
Like all collectors, Conner has had her share of misses. One button, which she regrets selling, was one Dutch generals wore on their pants. While in France she saw ivory buttons with soldiers painted on them. Dated from the French Revolution in the late 18th century, the buttons cost $11,000 each (or enough to buy almost four 1990 Cadillacs). Those were a little out of her price range, she said.
Such has been the journey Conner and her husband, Bill, have had throughout the years. For her, a retired physician’s assistant (her husband is retired from GM), collecting buttons is something fun to do. Whether it’s something her two daughters and one granddaughter will carry on is anyone’s guess.
Conner jokes about slowing down since she has many buttons yet to go through. ‘I don’t think my kids want to be left with millions of buttons,? she chuckled.