Enamel Buttons
An Essential Resource for Collectors
Thank you for visiting my page about my book on enamel buttons, which should be on the book shelves in December 2024. It is available for pre-order at Amazon now. If you are currently interested in pre-ordering from me ($65 including shipping with a $25 deposit) or have questions, please email me. The retail cost is $69.95 with about 550 enamel button examples on about 160 pages - hard cover.
Once the book is out, if I find more information I will post it here - so bookmark this page for future reference.
Though enamel buttons have been around for centuries and are favorites of button collectors, there has not been a book completely dedicated to their study . . . until now! Author Karen L. Cohen brings her unique perspective as an enamelist, Studio Button Artist, and educator to Enamel Buttons: An Essential Resource for Collectors.Her Meticulous research combined with her insights about the properties of enamel and the techniques used in buttons make this a must-have book for every collector. Hundreds of photos provide examples of the various techniques and button types and are a valuable resource for study.
Cohen explains why things look like they do, such as why Motiwala Bros. “Liquid Enamel” buttons look like they flow, while also helping the collector distinguish between closely related techniques, such as Champlevé and Cloisonné or Monochrome and Grisaille. Her extensive research on the evolution of enameling techniques provides the history chapter with fascinating facts intertwined with how they relate to enamel buttons. Cohen has documented many of the enamelist makers along with their back marks, making it easier for collectors to identify button finds. The appendices include related information such as how to identify enamel look-alikes such as CPE (cold plastic enamel) and restoration techniques.
If you already collect enamel buttons, this is an essential resource for understanding your collection in more depth. If you are curious about the topic, this book tells it all: history, material, techniques and embellishments, makers, and more. If you are a collector of other types of enamelware or are fascinated with enameling or are someone who resells enamels such as antique dealers, this book is an excellent resource about the various aspects of enamel in general. Lastly, it’s a button book you will enjoy paging through again and again, admiring the hundreds of glorious enamel buttons!
I dedicate this book to all enamelists, past, present, and future, for the beauty they add to the world with their wonderous creations. Enameling takes knowledge, patience, experimentation, and creativity, which is why we all love this medium. I hope that this book inspires button collectors to better appreciate and understand the enamel qualities we work with in our preferred art form.
Table of Contents
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Foreword
I was first introduced to Karen L. Cohen when she contacted me while researching Birmingham buttons for her book on enameled buttons. Erika Speel, our English modern enamel historian, had previously interviewed my mother, Toni Frith (the original “Button Queen”), for one of her books. It is through research with Erika that Karen made the connection with me. Ms. Cohen’s initial inquiry was regarding Matthew Boulton and his possible connection with enamel buttons that are owned by the Birmingham Museums Trust in England. She had previously been in touch with that museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum, which currently display these buttons. I remarked that, as far as I knew, the connection between Boulton and early enamels has not been studied in depth. Thus, our discussions moved to other aspects of enamel buttons. I was pleased and honored to be invited by Ms. Cohen to write a foreword to this new book on enameled buttons. I have, myself, been in business for more than 40 years, trading as “The Button Queen,” a title that I inherited from my mother. I recognized the lack of available detailed information about enamel buttons.
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This book offers valuable information about the various techniques and how they are achieved, different characteristics and styles of enamels that can be articulated and illustrated in buttons, and charting the history and makers of many of the buttons we collect today. I am certain that the reader will be enriched with knowledge about all kinds of enamel buttons, from the coveted eighteenth-century ones to the current creative examples made by contemporary studio artists. Although the book has hundreds of button illustrations, it is much more than a coffee table book with a lot of pretty pictures. The captions and the accompanying text provide solid educational information that the reader can apply to new buttons they may encounter in their future collecting. From our initial contact and subsequent discussions, I could tell that Ms. Cohen spent quite a while researching the subject thoroughly. She has been a teacher for all of her adult life and an enamelist for many years, having previously written books on enameling for enamelists. In this, her latest effort, she explains all aspects of enameling to people who specifically collect enamel buttons. I am confident that this book will become a valuable tool in the armory of the button collector. It ranks along The Big Book of Buttons, Fairbairn’s Book of Crests of the Families of Great Britain and Ireland, and Buttons by Diana Epstein. |
| Martyn Frith Managing Director, The Button Queen Ltd.  |
Preface
Enamel, correctly called vitreous enamel, is glass fused to metal at high temperatures. The process of enameling is a specialized art form that has been in existence for thousands of years. The earliest known enamels are six Cloisonné gold rings that date back to 1300 BCE during the Mycenaean period! Enamel, though it is glass and thus can crack and scratch, is a very sturdy material that can last for lifetimes and still remain beautiful, even if buried for centuries. As an enamelist and educator for more than 40 years, author of two enameling books, and a Studio Button artist for more than a decade, I am interested in sharing my experience with collectors. Thus, this book is not the typical button material book as its focus is to explain enamel and how that relates to enamel buttons. Although it explains the various aspects of enamel buttons mentioned in the National Button Society (NBS) Blue Book, Official Classification Competition Guidelines, this book does not follow its structure as this presentation of material follows my perspective. This book is a teaching tool to educate the collector to better understand the button in front of them (in all chapters, button photos are shown to illustrate what I am discussing; see the sidebar “Button Photo Tips”). This necessitates that I relate technical information not just on the various types of enamels but also on how the enameling techniques are accomplished. My job is to explain this technical information in a way that button collectors will understand. Hopefully I have accomplished this. I realize that my perspective is that of an enamelist, not a collector (although I do collect enamel buttons!) and know that these two perspectives are not the same. For example, look at button 295 and describe it to yourself before continuing to read. You might have said: central Émaux Peints flowers with a border of Encrustations and four gold Paillons set in metal. When I looked at this, I immediately knew that the Encrustations were something special—no known enamel fires that color. Although they look like opals, they could not be, as opals could not take the heat of the kiln. Much to my amazement, in my research I found a formula for enameling these opal-like elements (see section “Faux Opals,” page xxx).
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The art of enameling has changed over the centuries with improved enamel materials and new techniques and usage being developed. Thus, I provide an abridged history of enamels and how that relates to changes in buttons in chapter 1, “History.” In order to understand enamel, chapter 2, “The Material: Enamel,” is a discussion of what enamel and the general enameling process is all about. This overview allows the reader to better appreciate the work and materials used by enamelists around the world and will define terms that I use later in the book. Of course, the most important information about enamel buttons is describing their attributes. This is done in chapter 3, “Buttons as Enamelware.” I provide some technical information in specialty sidebars called Enamel Tech Talk (ETT). The ETT sidebars include more details than a reader might absorb on first reading and thus can be read when one is ready to gain this extra information. The final chapter, “Enamel Button Artists, Producers, and Purveyors,” describes companies and individuals that made or commissioned enamel buttons, showing their marks when available. A few appendixes provide related information. Appendix A shows buttons that include enamel, but are not classified as NBS enamel buttons—these are shown outside the main text so that there is no confusion with those considered NBS enamel buttons; appendix B is about enamel look-alikes, including the difference between Cold Plastic Enamel (CPE) and real (vitreous) enamel; appendix C is an explanation on restoring enamels; appendix D is a chart to help with the translation between button and enamel terminology; appendix E is an overview of Japanese enamel terminology; and appendix F is a checklist to aid in collecting. Finally, my list of references is included for your further research. * Quote from the book Buttons by Diana Epstein |
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About the Author
Karen L. Cohen was a high school math teacher before earning her master’s degree in computer science. She spent most of her computer career at AT&T Bell Labs, where she was in the forefront of data communication network development and was awarded a patent on one of her inventions in 1985. It is at Bell Labs that she learned technical writing.
In the mid-1970s, Cohen started working in metals and enameling because she had loved them as a teen at summer camp. In 2002, she published her first book on enameling. In the same year, she started the enameling program at a summer art camp for kids where she later taught for 15 years, and eventually coordinated their three jewelry studios—enameling, metals, and beading. In 2019 she published her completely rewritten second book on enameling, The Art of Fine Enameling (2nd ed.), which was double the size of the first edition.
Today Cohen is retired from computing, but she still teaches enameling and beading at various venues to both adults and children. She is a Studio Button artist but also continues to create dolls, wall pieces, jewelry, and more. In writing this book, Cohen extensively researched buttons, Japanese enameling, and old enameling techniques and is amazed at what she was able to uncover about the connection to buttons currently available for collectors.
About the Editor
Barbara Barrans began collecting buttons in the late 1980s after attending her first California state button show. Her passion for the hobby and involvement in the National Button Society (NBS) progressed from there. In 2004, she became the assistant chairperson to Joan Lindsay on the Classification Committee. She and Joan spent the year jointly reorganizing/rewriting the NBS Classification Blue Book into a completely new format, which was published in 2005 and continues to be in use. Early in that same year, Lucille Weingarten had asked her to assume the authorship of the “Q and A” column that appeared in the National Button Bulletin. This, along with other articles focused on button classification, were regular features in the publication. She retired from the Classification Committee after serving as chairperson for 13 years.
last updated
04/23/2024
