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Just in Time For Clinton Vs. Trump, Auction Sells Vintage Political Buttons

 The collection features buttons from the Federal period through the modern era.
The collection features buttons from the Federal period through the modern era.
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Roland Auctions NY

GREENWICH VILLAGE — A Village auction house is selling an expansive collection of historic U.S. political campaign buttons just in time for this election season's final stretch.

Roland Auctions on East 11th Street is featuring the collection that belonged to East Hampton-based optometrist Alan York, a prolific collector of stamps and political ephemera.

Another claim to fame of York's was that he persuaded his friend Kurt Vonnegut to make the protagonist in his book "Slaughterhouse Five" an optometrist by frequently complaining that nobody writes main characters based on the profession, according to the auction house's biography of the collector.

The collection of political buttons, which range from the Federal period to the modern era, includes pins promoting Franklin D. Roosevelt for State Senator, the John F. Kennedy-Lyndon B. Johnson presidential ticket and a campaign linking the inclusion of black baseball players to a "score against Hitler," among many others.

The collection will be previewed from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Oct. 11 through 13, followed by an auction on Oct. 14 beginning at 11 a.m. at the auction house.