Sticky button cards

Throughout the whole 20th century buttons were displayed and distributed on button cards. I have some lovely Art Deco cards from 1930s, but also some more modern ones from 1960s. The buttons were usually sewn to the cards. I once met a woman who was delighted to see my button cards because they reminded her of her youth: she used to live in Paris, where she sewed the buttons to the cards for a large fashion firm.

Anyway, somewhere around 1950s-1960s someone had one of those 'brilliant' ideas to make things easier and instead of sewing - glue the buttons to the cards, usually using an adhesive tape. I saw this method used all through the 1970s and 1980s!!

Apparently, this looks easier. You spent much less time attatching the buttons to the display and if you rip them off, you do not let the rest of the buttons loose (which was the case of sewn cards).