The Buckle Collection of a North Shore Lady

Every now and again, a collection surfaces that makes one re-appraise at the whole endeavour of the art of collecting and appreciate afresh the drive and dedication, the fever and curiosity it takes to create a great collection.

And so it is with the buckle collection of a Lady from Sydney’s North Shore.

Australia’s leading buckle expert has put this collection together over the last 60 years. By virtue of the rarity of a buckle collection, it is arguably one of the leading buckle collections in the world.

There are over two hundred buckles in the collection, the earliest piece dating from the 17th century. Many were sourced from the Portobello Markets in London in its heyday in the 1970’s, from a treasure trove of Australian antique stalls, fairs, auctions and from travels internationally.

A selection of buckles on display at the V & A in London lacked by comparison.

The collectors knowledge of silver led her famously to have a pair of buckles purporting to be those belonging to Captain Cook to be removed in 2013 from the Heritage Collection of the NSW State Library, after identifying the makers hallmarks of 1795 when Cook was in fact killed in 1776. Recently she exhibited to members of the Embroiderer’s Guild of NSW Mosman Branch at the Mosman Library to an intrigued audience.

The collection is predominantly European, English, Australian and Japanese, with pieces epitomising the famous decades of Art Deco, Art Nouveau, Georgian, important Australian makers from key periods and fascinating purpose such as Australian nurses’ buckles, English gentleman’s and breeches buckles, carriage driver’s and mourning buckles, ladies’ buckles of 18th century French court. Beyond function, buckles were a form of practical jewellery used very much to signify status.

The breadth of the collection extends from silver cloque toggle button from late 17th century, a fabulous cut steel diadem commonly worn by nobility of the late 17th century and the pinnacle of the collection, an extremely rare and valuable 14 carat gold Faberge buckle, seed pearl and exquisite guilloche enamel work in its original box by the Russian court jeweller Henrik Wigström.

A breadth of impressive workmanship feature materials such as gold, silver, pinchbeck, ivory, bone, jet, tortoiseshell and styles and techniques such as satsuma, pique, Limoges, cloissone, ormolu, Damascene, cut steel, paste and silver gilt filigree.

Starting off with simpler, hallmarked pieces, our Lady eventually fell upon a sword buckle at Portabello Markets, London. “I was amazed,” she remarked. “I had never seen a buckle as old as this because these buckles date back to the 1670-1720 period and I was stunned by its age and the fact that it had its own keeper. The belt went across, and the keeper kept the sash in place. It was an amazing thing to think about.”

As her collection grew, she became increasingly intrigued by the different periods of buckles and the eras and art movements they reflected. “From art nouveau, art deco to Edwardian, you started to think about the history and the history combined with the buckles themselves became more interesting than the buckles. The buckles were hard to find anyway. And I had to go to antique shops, which I always loved doing when I was very young in country Australia where I grew up. I would go around looking at wonderful designs and patterns because that’s what I loved looking at. And it became more than pleasure. It was something that became so interesting because of the history of them. Even now, looking back, I had something in my hand that had been designed and made before my forbears had come out to Australia. And that started to make me realise how important history was in my life. And the importance of these buckles.”

As is so often the case with true collectors, historical breadth and the fineness of individual pieces began to drive her purchases. Seeking to establish the history of buckles through all the periods of history and reflecting changes in design and usage. An early sword buckle became the starting point.

The collector enthuses: “Once you start with getting one or two and then twenty or thirty and then hundreds you start to realise that the history of each piece can be part of the importance of it all. With buckles from Australia, how did they get out here? What was their provenance. Did they come out to Australia with people who loved decoration and design like I did?”

She marvelled at the rarity and age of some of her discoveries, and charmed by the decorative element, particularly with men’s dressing to express status and style. Questions arose such as why were men so decorated in a certain French era? What was changing that made them so dressed up? “On paintings I saw in London at the Tate Gallery and at the Portrait Gallery, I was recognising absolutely beautiful buckles featuring more on men rather than on women. Paste glamourised their outfits. Samuel Pepys referred to buckles in the mid 1600’s. Buckles were an early form of glamour for men.”

The thrill of the chase came to include pairs and matching sets of buckles and buttons in their individual boxes, the early buckles of immigrants and particular professions such as Australian silver nurses’ buckles. “My earliest Australian buckle is from 1860, and from Stokes & Son in Melbourne,” says the collector. “Having a nurse’s buckle with the original black belt material brings it to life. A buckle worn by someone who looked after other people, worn to have a sense of pride with an occupation is touching. Often parents would buy them because they were so proud their daughters had become nurses. It was part of their uniform.”

Another area of interest became paste buckles, referred to along with the cut steel as the poor man’s diamond, and it was used right through various generations over several hundred years. Early paste buckles feature a dot of pitch for depth and have a special lustre all their own. A particularly stunning cut steel diadem, found in Portabello Markets around 1975, is thought to be from the late 17th century to early 18th century and can be traced back to the English court style from paintings of the period.

Eventually buckles turned up in the most obscure places, even in the tiny country town of Ganmain where she was born at an auction of farm and household goods in the middle of a paddock. “I was very excited because I did find an exquisite satsuma buckle. And every time I look at that buckle it reminds me of the day I went to the auction at Ganmain and didn’t think I would find anything and I did,” she marvels.

The cumulative thrill of collecting spurred her on. “Every time I bought a buckle that happened. Whenever I saw something different like Damascene work, satsuma work, jet, they were all different to the silver buckles I already had. I had to research them and find out why they were created, find out where they were made, who wore them. It just became very exciting. Each one was a total voyage to me.

“I knew nothing about jet for instance. I didn’t know that it came out of a bog in Ireland or Britain and that it was 2000 years old. I would look at the buckle I had just bought that was made in 1860 that was made of this material that was 2000 years old and it was very exciting to hold it in my hand. The same with satsuma and our history with Japan. It is a continuing love of history and materials. Picque wear, for example, is made from tortoiseshell and ivory. You can’t make anything out of tortoiseshell these days.”

Unquestionably the pinnacle of the collection is a Faberge buckle by Henrik Wigström in its original box. Our lady heard it was coming up for auction in Melbourne at Christie’s Auctions and knew immediately she had to had have it. The piece was bought up to Sydney for her to view. “When I saw it, I fell in love with it. I could not believe the guilloche design around the edge of it, the lovely pale yellow, the tiny little seed pearls,” she recalls.

“The mere fact that I was holding something that was made by Henrik Wigström, you can’t help but be thrilled by that alone. But to know that Faberge this wonderful design from 1904, made in Russia. And to know that the buckle had made it this far and had been part of Lady Lloyd Jones. And the Russian Royal family were killed in 1917. They were still making eggs for the Royal Family then. It was made in Russia. Whomever purchased it in St Petersburg from their shop would have been a very wealthy circles and to be in those own circles. The buckle itself has its own beautifully designed box, with its clasp underneath the buckle in the box which is quite remarkable. And the wonderful Russian hallmarks on them. There is definitely a romance to Faberge.”

This unique collection, quite possibly one of the better buckle collections in the world, comes up for auction as part of the jewellery auctions at Shapiro Auction House in Sydney, Australia on December 7th 2022, It will be a fitting grand finale for this lady’s passion for collecting buckles over a lifetime between England and Australia.

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