Buttonhook

A buttonhook is a tool used to facilitate the closing of buttoned shoes, gloves or other clothing. It consists of a hook fixed to a handle which may be simple or decorative as part of a dresser set or chatelaine. Sometimes they were given away as promotions with product advertising on the handle. To use, the hook end is inserted through the buttonhole to capture the button by the shank and draw it through the opening.[1]

Early 20th-century buttonhook advertising a shoe shop in Michigan
A buttonhook in use on a c.1900 boot

Buttonhooks have other uses as well. At Ellis Island, screeners known as "buttonhook men" used buttonhooks to turn immigrants' eyelids inside out to look for signs of trachoma[2].

Buttonhooks on display in Bedford Museum
  • With handles of horn and wood
  • With handles of silver
  • Trench art buttonhooks
  • Pocket knives with buttonhooks
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References
  1. Johnson, Eleanor. Fashion Accessories. U.K.:Shire Publications, 1980, p.7, ISBN 0-85263-530-3
  2. https://www.history.com/topics/ellis-island


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