There were 31 members and visitors in attendance at the Autumn meeting which proved to be a splendid day.

Some glorious buttons were available, both for sale and to be admired on the display table. Former President Muriel Higgs did Trojan service looking after the door and selling raffle tickets for button donated prizes, making £37 for the Society. The furthest travelled visitor came from Switzerland and the Question and Answer spot proved to be extremely popular.

The speaker, Sylvia Crawley, Curator of Applied Arts at Birmingham Museum, illustrated her excellent talk with the aid of slides from the Museum's archives. She also told us that in 2012 the Museum plans to open a new section where its buttons will be on display.

Sylvia said that trade in Birmingham in the 18thC was both chaotic and energetic. Before the canals were built raw materials had to be brought in by cart and taken out by pack horse, therefore only small items including buttons were manufactured, known as the toy trade. The smell from the tanneries and the noise of the hammering meant that visitors in the 1700s believed they had arrived at the gates of hell.

John Taylor, owned a big factory established in 1730, and was called the button king, it was possibly Birmingham's first factory and employed 500 people. Matthew Boulton, who died in 1809, made very prestigious goods of a wide variety. Edward Thomason, who was apprenticed to Boulton, later started his own button making business, went on to become High Sheriff of Birmingham, was Knighted, and became famous for inventing safety catches for guns.

A great many items made in Birmingham did not carry any mark, but button maker and jeweller James Lucock, whose button collection destined for men's clothing is in the museum, will be on display in the new gallery in 2012.

When cloth covered buttons threatened the Birmingham button trade, a petition was sent to the Prince of Wales and a fine levied, sanctioned by Queen Anne, on those wearing fabric buttons in order to protect the manufacturers.

The Birmingham Bagmen were the travellers taking buttons and other goods out of Birmingham. Theirs was a hard and solitary life and in order to protect themselves against footpads, they often teamed up with others. Many are depicted in cartoons which can be seen at the Museum.

A visit to Soho House in Birmingham is highly recommended as well as a visit to the website for the Museum and Art Gallery: www.bmag.org.uk

Angela Clark, Secretary, BBS