There's no vaccination for these measles!

The symptoms are unmistakable...a small dot appears in a place you didn't expect...upon discovery, your cheeks turn red and your heart rate rises...then comes the moaning, groaning and other sounds of anguish. Next thing you know, you begin to notice looks of pity on the once friendly faces around you.

There's no denying it...you've got a measle.

Fortunately, a measle in this case is not nearly as dangerous as a case of the actual measles, but some collectors may find them equally as frightening.  In the button collecting world, a measle is the dreaded death penalty of competition. As I mentioned in an earlier post, you can compete in button collecting, and from what I've seen so far, the competition is fierce! But if you get one measly measle, you might as well be an Olympian on steroids because either way, your hopes and dreams of competitive glory are over!

I have found the competitive side of button collecting to be incredibly intriguing. Each show features a unique set of awards and categories in which you can compete. Fair warning...if you're looking for a generic competition like "Best Button," this is not for you. Based on the National Button Society classification system, the categories are SPECIFIC, and they require you to really know your stuff. To compete, you first decide in which category (or categories) you're going to enter. After carefully reading and interpreting the award, you put together your tray of buttons (usually around 25, but that may vary).

Here are a couple of examples from this year's competition:

Owl - Realistic

25 Any size. Birds assorted specialized to peacocks, owls, wading birds, roosters, and ducks/geese. Must have five of each listed bird type. Unlimited realistics.  -  So, to compete for this award, you must put together 25 buttons of varying sizes that feature these particular types of birds, and you must take care to include 5 of each type. If you use a button featuring a blue bird...measle! If you have only 3 roosters...you're disqualified. Fortunately, you are not limited in your use of realistics (buttons that actually look like (and are shaped like) a bird).

Cl. 20-1 through 20-24. 25 Any size. Other pictorials specialized to six men, six women, six couples, and seven buttons from the remainder of the class depicting what men and women might do on a vacation/date. - For this one, you have to consult the NBS Classification system to make sure you use only buttons in Section 20 (Other Pictorials), Class 20-1 through 20-24. Six buttons should feature men, six women, and six couples. The other seven can come from the wide variety of remaining classes such as architectural structures, cartoon/comics, pastimes/games/sports and many more. All buttons have to relate to something that men and women would do on vacation or on a date.

The card shown here includes buttons representing: going to the beach, golf, going on safari, the circus, bicycling, playing tennis, going to the ballet, going to the north woods, going to a reenactment, going to the opera, attending a wedding, going to a concert, attending a pow-wow, hiking, hot air ballooning,  listening to music, dancing, sailing, camping, visiting Paris, going to Disneyland, gazing at the sky, visiting NYC, and climbing a mountain. VERY CREATIVE!!

Once you enter your tray, the judges take over. Judging is a very serious business. At this particular show, judging lasted about a day and a half. Judges, along with their clerks, pore over the entries, determine who put together the best tray, and in some cases, give out the dreaded measle which immediately disqualifies the tray from competition. A measle is given when the judge deems a particular button to be inappropriate for that particular category (see green dot in the photo on the left).

In this case, the judge did not feel that this button was appropriate for this particular category. Although this entrant felt she had a good argument for why this button does work for this category, the judge's decision is final.




I'm very proud to say that my mom won a third place ribbon in the category of black glass, imitation fabric buttons. Here is a photo of her tray as well as the other winners in this category.

With more than 180 awards at this show, there was no shortage of competitive spirit. I was in awe of the attention to detail and creativity that went into preparing the trays as well as the painstaking work of the judges. It may be a while before I have enough of a collection to allow me to compete, but when the time comes, everyone better watch out! 

Panoramic view the competition trays