Button, Button, Who's Got The Button?

Like many of you, I watched bits and pieces of the American coverage of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.  All the trappings of royalty are just catnip to us Yanks!

Reading some of the coverage online, I came across the banner which was displayed on the Queen’s barge during the flotilla on the Thames on Sunday June 3^rd.  Created by artist Ann Carrington, the 10’ by 10’ banner is a red velvet background with the royal emblems done in buttons, over 500,000 buttons, using 34 miles of thread!

From the close up picture, you can see the buttons and how they are placed to give the impressions of depth and shading.  All I can say is absolutely magnificent.  I love when an artist takes something so common place as a button and makes a real work of art.

But when I saw the picture, I also thought about the “Pearly Kings” of London.  You know the picture, the working class London man with a suit covered in buttons…

And I thought what a great inspiration!  The real Queen now has her own “Pearly Banner” (done in gold versus the standard “pearl” buttons).   Of course, I couldn’t stop there so thanks to the Internet (honestly, the greatest invention in my lifetime!), I was able to learn more about the tradition.

Depending upon which website you read, the tradition stated with a young London orphan, Henry Croft in the late 1800’s.  He noted that the local costermonger’s (itinerant street vendors) were sewing “pearl” buttons along the seams of their clothing for pure effect.  Henry decided to smother his entire suit in the button, designing symbols and featuring the motto “All for Charity”.  Other’s soon followed the tradition until each district of London had their own “Pearlie King and/or Queen”.  The tradition lives on to this day, being primarily a means to collect monies for various charities.

So of course, I then had to check Ann Carrington’s site (http://www.anncarrington.co.uk/) and sure enough, she used the Pearlie Kings as her inspiration!   Check out another one of her works below:

Look closely at the picture to see how the depth and proper shading is achieved.  Note how the forehead and cheekbones are more heavily accented with buttons to achieve the right look.  How the horizontal lines mimic the printed lines on a real postage stamp. Most beautiful to me is the eye-how just a few strategically placed buttons on a background of red velvet can completely convey the essence of an “eye”.

So, I will file this away as another “inspiration” post-after all, I have to have at least 5,000 buttons just yearning to be turned into art!