Buttonhook

Article summary

A boot buttonhook or buttonhook is a metal hook on a handle with a grip, which was used to pull buttons, usually on boots or gloves, more easily through the corresponding buttonholes. Boot buttons were particularly popular in the Victorian era, when fashion dictated that women should wear buttoned boots made of stiff leather. Buttonhooks were usually about the size of a fork, but could be much smaller or larger, depending on whether they were for buttons on collars, gloves, corsets or boots. Those used for gloves were generally between two and three inches long, and were used to button the large number of buttons, up to 30, found on women's gloves. There also existed small folding buttonhooks, so that they could easily be carried in a woman's purse.

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