Esmeralda

I'm flabbergasted.  A couple of weeks ago I saw this gorgeous button for sale at $6.00 NZ.  I took it to my friendly button lady at Three Buckets Full and she told me it was a story button and worth about $25.00 NZ.

I put a query on the California Button Society Facebook page about it's origins and this is their reply...

"I believe this is "Esmeralda and Her Dancing Goat" from The Hunchback of Notre Dame-written by Victor Hugo. This is an 'Opera' Button and it was made about 1880! Sweet find!"
Wikapedia says:
Esmeralda, or La Esmeralda (French: Esméralda), born Agnes, is a fictional character in Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (or Notre Dame de Paris). She is a French Gypsy girl (near the end of the book, it is revealed that her biological mother was a French woman). She constantly attracts men with her seductive dances, and is rarely seen without her clever goat Djali. She is around 16 years old.

Well, every button has a story but this is a beauty.