War-time era buttons

The second world war was a difficult time in Europe. Although Spain was not directly involved in it (apart from some help sent to the Nazi Germany), it was no different there, as there had been a terrible civil war, which had just finished in 1939.

Along with the atrocoities came hunger and scarcity. The former moved people from cities to the countryside, where they could at least access the basic produce, and the latter was caused both by insufficiennt resources, but also by the fact that most commodities were reserved for the military use. This was the fate of the plastic, whose use was restricted for civillians.

This is an example of metal military buttons for the navy.

The alternatives provided by the button manufacturers were metal and wood. However, plastic had already made it to the haberdasheries and now it was difficult to convince people to buy cheaper and more mundane materials, so the buttons were usually covered in a thick layer of paint in vivid colours, just to make them look like plastic.