O'HARA PORCELAIN STUDS
O’Hara porcelain studs were made by the O’Hara Waltham Dial Company. O’Hara badges (not porcelain studs) exist for the 1892 campaign, but the studs seem to all come from the 1896 campaign (William McKinley; William Jennings Bryan), and focus primarily on the predominate issue of the time – the gold versus silver standard debate. Some studs (e.g., the McKinley bust) were made using a variety of construction techniques (i.e., some are pins, some studs, some have raised borders of dots, some have plastic backs).
The O’Hara company also produced dress buttons, jewelry and pins for World Fairs, trade associations and advertising. The company was liquidated in 1958. O’Hara studs are desirable and scarce generally, McKinley Gold Bugs and busts are generally the most common varieties which Democratic Party versions are scarcer.
Donald Slayter wrote a short article on O’Hara studs for the Summer, 1973 edition of the APIC Keynoter. Many of the studs included in the images in the website are from the collection pictured with his article. Slayer also pictured several interesting studs that are not included in the images.
Other interesting porcelain studs include the Union Pottery Company, Liverpool, Ohio, porcelain Gold Bug stud (William McKinley) and the log cabin porcelain stud (Benjamin Harrison). The Harrison Morton Watch Factory Republican Club badge (Benjamin Harrison) is also an interesting porcelain badge with a watch connection.
As far as I know, no comprehensive catalog of O’Hara studs available. If you have an interesting type not included in the collection images and would like to share it with others, send a digital JPG photograph and indicate whether or not you want attribution. I will attach additional interesting O’Hara images to this page.