Tender Buttons
Joseph Clayes III Gallery
Tender Buttons
August 14–September 4, 1993
Diana Epstein and Millicent Saffro collect buttons and are proprietors of Tender Buttons, a Manhattan button emporium that is as much a small museum as a commercial enterprise. The Athenaeum presented a rare display of unusual and unique buttons from Epstein’s and Saffro’s collection which includes over 3,000 types of buttons ranging from prehistoric, bone, and earthenware buttons worn by Egyptians and Greeks; to 18th century American campaign buttons; to enameled, carved, and engraved buttons designed by Cartier, Wedgewood, and Limoges. This exhibition marked the first comprehensive showing in the United States of the Epstein/Saffro collection.