Founded 1979 · United Kingdom
The art & history of the buttonhook
A friendly society for everyone who studies, collects and treasures these small instruments of a bygone, well-dressed age — from silver dressing-table pieces to humble folding pocket hooks.
Plate I — Tiffany & Co., gold In brief
What is a buttonhook?
For roughly a century — from the mid-Victorian period through to the 1930s — the buttonhook was an indispensable part of daily dress. Tightly-fitting kid gloves, high-button boots and many garments fastened with rows of small buttons that simply could not be done up by hand. The hook slipped through the buttonhole, caught the button, and drew it neatly home.
What began as a practical necessity became, in the hands of silversmiths and cutlers, an object of real craft and beauty: handles of sterling silver, mother-of-pearl, bone, ivory, celluloid and finely turned wood. The Society exists to record, share and enjoy them all.
A collector’s guide
Where to begin
Identifying & Dating
Hallmarks, makers and materials — how to read a buttonhook and place it in time.
Read →Using Buttonhooks
From kid gloves to high-button boots: the everyday tool of a more buttoned age.
Read →Fakes & Reproductions
What the careful collector watches for, and how to tell genuine from later copy.
Read →Trench Art
Buttonhooks fashioned by hand in wartime — a small, poignant corner of the field.
Read →From the Society
Latest news
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Members receive Boutonneur
A friendly worldwide membership, a regular illustrated journal, and the chance to meet fellow enthusiasts at our annual gatherings.
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