Page 4 - December2001

258 December 2001

The President's Message
Dear Members:
Christmas caffre early this year fbr me. It started on
September 3rd rvhen I boarded a plane that took me to
Prague in the Czech Republic for 12 days and then on to
England f-or eight days. I met up with 5 other c-ollectors in
Prague and \\re proceeded to Jablonec ancl Nisou. Man,Dot,le
In Jablonec \\,e visited the Muzeum akla a bizuterie. Presiclent
u,hich is located in an iristoric house that has been conr,'erted
into a slass museum. The sround floor is dedicated to glass
objects such as vases. jeu'elr\'. beads ancl inforrnation regarding the history of
glass. Doll'n one flight of stairs" past a ver-\r large terra cotta container holding
glass buttons (u'lrere ll'e stopped to pick out three for good luck) is a room w'itl-r
buttons that are truly a fbast to all the senses. Each of the four walls \\'ere co\'-
erecl with salesman's sample cards. The most interesting part of the displays is
the fact that they are labeled as to the rnaker and the dates that the buttons \\'ere
manufactured. There \\'as also a large display table under glass ir-r the center of
the room. We sa\rr lacy glass leal'es in el'er1' color )Iou can irnagine. There were
also lacy glass buttons u,ith butterflies on them. \\'hy'don't $'e see these exqui-
site buttons in our collections? They must ha'r'e been verv expensil'e u,hen they
\\'ere first made and therefore not u,iclely, pr"rrchasecl and put into circulation.
Afler spending hours oohing and aahing \\'e \\,ere taken back upstairs to vieu'
tu,o boxes of buttons that were not on displaf itr the museum. These buttons
\\xere also e\rerv bit as desirable as the otres \\'e sa\\'on clisplar,.
Wb u,,ere pri'u'ileged to lr,'atch two different tnen hand pressing buttons at
different factories that w,e l,isited. Their pressing styles \\rere as difTerent as the
buttons that they \\'ere pressing. One \\'as w,orking the glass as if in love u'ith it.
making the same number of buttons r,r,'ith each heating of the rod. The other
was just pressing out buttons u'ithc-lut regard for the number of buttons he
pressed from each rod after heating the rod. He did not take as mr-rch care as
the first man in making sure that each button was pressed from the center of
the rod. There are about a clozen different steps that go into rnaking er glass but-
ton depending on hor,l' rnuch decoration is applied and hou, many times it must
be fired. In trll r,isited fbur factories. I still can not believe that I salloso
"l'e
many buttons. I nor,'v' understand hou, t$,o buttons that are similar can be of
such r,'arying quality.