1930s Art Deco Celluloid Buttons on Original Card - 24 retailer Coral Coloured Buttons, Made In England

1930s Art Deco Celluloid Buttons on Original Card
- 24 Coral Coloured Buttons, Made In England

A good set of 24 Coral Coloured Celluloid two-hole buttons
with a beautiful Art Deco relief design,
unused and still attached to their original card
The buttons are immaculate
The buttons measure one inch across, 1/8 of an inch deep.


Celluloid (cellulose nitrate)

Celluloids are a class of compounds created from nitrocellulose and camphor, with added dyes and other agents. Generally considered the first thermoplastic, it was first created as Parkesine in 1856[1] and as Xylonite in 1869, before being retailer registered as Celluloid in 1870. Celluloid is easily molded and shaped, and it was first widely used as an ivory replacement. The main purpose was movie and photography film industries, that used only celluloid films prior to acetate films that were introduced in the fifties. Celluloid is highly flammable, difficult and expensive to produce and is no longer widely used.

This is the original and very flammable material invented by the Hyatt Brothers in New Jersey in 1868. It is a thermoplastic which has very little heat resistance; pieces will be damaged by the use of a ‘hot point' test and sometimes even by contact with very hot tap water.  It was often used to imitate ivory (ivoroid form), tortoise shell, amber, coral, and mother of pearl (an iridescent laminated form often used for 1920s and 1930s dresser sets). 

It can occur in pretty much any color imaginable, from solid and dense to translucent or transparent. It was formed into sheets of various thicknesses, rods, and blocks. The existence of evenly spaced parallel grain lines, especially in the faux-ivory jewelry pieces, are a giveway that it is celluloid. It often yellows with age and so all those pale yellow/ecru-colored Deco era brooches seen today were much closer to either clear or white back then. True celluloid – made according to the original formula using cotton fibers, nitric acids and camphor – was not made after WWII except in Occupied Japan who had for decades held the world monopoly on the camphor trade. Celluloid jewelry made in Japan during the first half of the 20th century often included wonderfully delicate hand painting as well as intricate designs (our next blog article will focus on Japanese celluloid brooches).

Trademarked names for “celluloid” include Amerith, Celluloid, Cinelin, Duralin, Fabrikoid, Fiberloid,
Herculoid, Isinglass, Keratol, Nitrol and Nitron, Nixonoid and Nixon CN, Pyralin, Pyroxylin, and Textiloid. Tradenames specific to imitation ivory often included that word, such as Ivorine, French Ivory, Ivorie Parisienne, celluloid ivory and vegetable ivory.
Characteristics: very lightweight; can have mold marks or not; can be solid, hollow or laminated. Can be pretty much any color, including transparent or black (though sometimes black paint was applied).