Jane Perry has collected peasant buttons for many years. Since retiring from a full-time career in advertising she has been travelling and indulging her hobbies. She is currently a visiting scholar attached to the Metalwork Collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, helping to catalogue its collection of traditional jewellery. In 2013, she published 'Traditional Jewellery in Nineteenth-Century Europe', based mainly on the V&A's superb collection.