Commonwealth Button Fund Patriotic War Collection display card - 1917

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Commonwealth Button Fund

c. 1917

Overview

Official Commonwealth Button Fund (CBF) display card produced to hold 24 of the smaller sized fundraising buttons sold by the organisation from 1915 to 1917.
It is rectangular in shape and has a string threaded through two holes at the top for suspension. It is made from cream card with a thin gold border in from the edge. Inside that is a layer of very fine silver striped lines - horizontal on each side and vertical at the top and bottom - which end with a fine line of gold. The depth of the layer is smaller at the corners with squares created for decoration. This shape is continued with thinner layer of cream and another gold line.
The central area is darker cream in colour and has the CBF logo in red at the top under which is written in black Gothic script. The address of the CBF appears below that in smaller black capital letters.
The words 'Patriotic War Collection' in black and red are next, underlined in black with a central wreath motif. The phrase 'Set of only recognised war buttons' is under that.
The lower half of the card has a grid of 24 rectangles bordered in thin black lines, each with the name of the button day printed below. There are three blank rectangles in the bottom row to house additional buttons.
Each rectangle has a triangular shape cut into the card onto which the pin on the reverse of each button can be held for display. An example of each of the 22 mm buttons is attached.
The reverse of the display card is plain.
There is some foxing on the card and there are a few holes where additional unrelated buttons and pins have previously been attached.

Historical information

The Commonwealth Button Fund was established in mid-1915, with the first Button Day being held in November of that year, supporting the people of Belgium. Over the course of the next 6 years, 33 Button Days were held raising money for a variety of patriotic and charitable causes including the Australian, British and French Red Cross, Hospitals, allied countries, current serving men and women, discharged, wounded and disabled servicemen and women, and their families. The buttons were sold in trams, buses, at railways stations and at rallies to raise money for the stated cause.

This official display card appears to be extremely rare. The authors of the reference book about the Commonwealth Button Fund have never seen one before. The buttons listed were all sold between 1915 and 1917, after which additional buttons were issued through until 1919. A special, larger sized button was produced to acknowledge those who had collected all 33 CBF buttons.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-119-RoW00565

Item type

Themes

Social History
War and Conflict
War and Conflict > World War 1

Material

Card