Grandmother's Button Tin

Hello! I took possession of my late mother's button tins a month ago - she had been an avid sewer, so there were three of these to collect. 

Upon closer inspection, I realized that one of the tins had likely been her mother's button tin. My maternal grandmother died the day before my seventh birthday, and throughout my young life had lived in Florida most of the year. Consequently, I remember very little about her, and thus was pleased to have something that had belonged to her. 

The tin itself: 

Sharp's Assorted Toffee, made in England. Not sure how old the tin is, but it's been around awhile.

Two sides of the tin:

Well, okay, the above mention of "THE LATE KING GEORGE VI" helps date the tin, since I looked up when King George had died - 1952. 

Let's lift up the lid and take a peek inside, shall we?

This looks like a large amount of buttons (along with some belt buckles and a few odds and ends), but it's really not. The dimensions of the tin make it slightly larger than a 5x7 picture frame, with a depth of around 1 1/2 inches. 

Haven't sorted through the tin much yet, but there are some interesting vintage buttons. A few that I liked:

Earlier today I used a mate of that square red button in a craft project. 

Although I love vintage buttons, my favorite find in the tin was actually this:

Dog tags from a family pet. My grandmother was living in Flint, Genesee County, MI at the time. I don't know why these two particular dog tags were kept, but I got a kick out of finding them! Like I'd said, I never really knew this grandmother, so I liked seeing something that had had personal meaning to her. From my mom's recollections, I knew that her mother had been fond of dogs. 

I'm sure that over time, I'll use more of my grandmother's buttons in craft projects - but I'll hang on to the dog tags as a little memento of her.