(TITUSVILLE, NJ) -- On Saturday, May 11, 2024 the New Jersey State Button Society’s (NJSBS) Spring 2024 Button Show and Competition, “Once Upon a Charmstring”, will highlight the history and enduring allure of the Victorian charmstring, plus an opportunity for guests to start one of their own.
From 1860 through the early 1900’s, charmstrings, or “memory strings”, were a popular pastime for young Victorian girls. Buttons, charms, and other mementos were collected and strung together and displayed prominently in their homes. The strings began with a large or special “touch button” tied to one end and additional buttons were added as gifts from friends, family, and potential suitors. A source of conversation, and entertainment between friends, charmstrings were also shrouded in superstition. One version of the lore surrounding them said that when a girl collected 999 buttons, the 1000th given to her would come from her one true love and future husband. Alternately, if she added any more or any less, it would doom her to a life of spinsterhood.
While the rules and lore of Victorian charmstrings might seem old-fashioned by today’s standards, the tradition of button strings is still captivating to modern collectors. One of the first ways artist and NJSBS member, Nancy De DuBois, began collecting buttons was by assembling her own charmstring. When friends sent her containers of buttons for her collection, she would go through them and pick out her favorites and put them on a string. After almost 40 years of adding to her string, it is now approximately 80 feet long.
She finds the pursuit of putting together a charmstring is one of the most delightful parts of button collecting. “My charmstring is now a strand filled with memories of friendships, shows attended, current events, milestones of life, and so much more,” De DuBois says.
De DuBois has created and assembled charmstring starter kits as favors exclusively for those who attend the show. Displays at the event will feature books, articles, photos, member’s strings and more history pertaining to charmstrings.
Founded in 1941, when a nationwide interest in button collecting was surging, the New Jersey State Button Society helps its members to study, collect, and enjoy garment buttons from the present and centuries past. The Spring Show and Competition is open to the general public from 9:00am to 3:00pm at the Union Fire Company and Rescue Squad at 1396 River Road in Titusville, eight miles south of Lambertville, NJ. Admission and parking are free.
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