Vintage White Mother of Pearl Shell Buttons • Choose Size • 8–14mm / Approx. 13–22L • Matched set of one dozen 4-Hole Sewing Buttons

Vintage white mother of pearl / natural shell buttons, sorted by size and available from approximately 8–14 mm (13–22 Ligne).

These are genuine shell buttons rather than modern plastic reproductions, with the natural variation in luster, color, thickness, and surface character that comes with the material. Four-hole sew-through construction makes them useful for vintage garment repair, restoration, historical sewing, costuming, and contemporary projects calling for natural shell.

Shell utility buttons have a long history in American clothing manufacture. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, freshwater shell button production became a major industry in the Mississippi River basin, particularly around Muscatine, Iowa. These loose buttons do not carry provenance allowing us to attribute them to a specific manufacturer, location, or production date, but they belong to that broader tradition of widely used natural-shell garment buttons.

Choose your size:
• 8 mm • approx. 13L
• 9 mm • approx. 14L
• 10 mm • approx. 16L
• 11 mm • approx. 17L
• 12 mm • approx. 19L
• 13 mm • approx. 20L
• 14 mm • approx. 22L

How our size bins work:
Sizes are based on measured diameter and rounded into 1 mm inventory ranges. For example, an 8 mm button measures 7.50–8.49 mm; 9 mm includes 8.50–9.49 mm, and so on.

Ligne (L) is the traditional button-sizing system. We include approximate Ligne equivalents to make these buttons easier to evaluate for historical garments, restoration, costume work, and other applications where traditional sizing matters.

About selection:
We maintain sorted collections of vintage shell buttons rather than sourcing each matched set together. Orders may be hand-selected from multiple groups within our inventory. We’ll choose a cohesive set within the color and size ordered while preserving the natural variation characteristic of genuine shell.

Need a closer match?
If you’re replacing an existing button or sourcing for restoration, costume, film/theater production, set decoration, or another project requiring a particular Ligne size, diameter, tone, or visual match, please reach out. We’re glad to hand-select from available inventory where we can.

Vintage condition. Expect minor variation and evidence of age/use appropriate to reclaimed sewing notions.

Your buttons will arrive carefully packed using 100% reused packaging, continuing their story while helping keep perfectly useful materials in circulation.

Materials:  Mother of Pearl, Shell, Nacre