Buttons, in the old days were made of mother of pearl. The mother of pearl
most common and easiest to get was the strawberry top after a quick acid dip.
Shell use to import tons of these shells, along with other items for the
button industry. Talk about your over collecting. As I understand it they
never collected themselves they sent their ships from port to port and their
agents would have hugh inventories of shells ready to load on board. And that
is not your urban legond, but ties in with the company history. I also
understand they were quite ruthless in their dealings, but we won't find that
in a company history, will we?

Frank Walker
Gems From The Sea