We feature bracelets created by Corda Walker in every limited edition release. Corda has worked as a Grandmother's Buttons' designer for twenty-seven years and inevitably creates magic from a handful of colorful antique buttons, vintage glass, cufflinks, and filigree stampings.
Centering this bracelet is a rare and collectible hand-painted French enamel button featuring sweet pink roses with delicate green leaves.
Boldly expressing your feelings wasn't socially acceptable in Victorian-era England. Much like modern teenagers with emojis, Victorians expressed their feelings with flowers. In the Victorian language of flowers, pale pink roses symbolize happiness.
READ MORE> Floriography: The Romantic Victorian-Era Language of Flowers.
The artisan who created the tiny tableau on this pretty button used two different enameling processes - champleve' and emaux peints.
Emaux peints means painting images with enamel. This process applies a solid color base via several firings, and then the design is painted on top with enamel paste. With champleve’, the metal surface of the button is grooved with a stamp, filled with colored enamel, and fired and polished.
This bracelet's enamel button is flanked by a substantial and varied collection of rare Victorian-era antique buttons. We especially adore the tinted brass buttons, one depicting a tiny castle and another with small little hearts.
You'll also find a perfume button. The romance surrounding perfume buttons makes them a customer favorite. Victorian women used the velvet affixed to the back of these storied buttons to absorb and carry their favorite scent. The result was a hint of aroma that lingered in rooms, like a pleasant wake, wherever the woman went.
In this piece, from the chain end:
- Tiny Victorian brass button with original tinting, circa 1880-1890
- Victorian tinted brass button with hearts, circa 1880-1890
- Dyed pearl button with floral brass escutcheon, circa 1900
- Victorian tinted brass button with castle, circa 1880-1890
- French champleve’ and exaux peints enamel button, circa 1880-1890
- Rare tinted brass, steel, and velvet perfume button, circa 1870-1890
- Antique tinted brass cufflink, circa 1900
- Victorian brass button with original tint, circa 1880-1890
- Seven brass filigree settings, stamped today in vintage dies in the USA
- Length is approximately 6” to 8”
Shop the collection: Limited Editions
