Buttons began to be used in the UK in the 1400s.
These would be a simple piece of cloth sewn into a ball shape, stuffed with either fabric or sheep’s wool. These would be mostly made by pedlars and chapmans (travelling salesman). Before buttons, clothes were mainly had ties as closings.
Dorset Buttons were invented by Abraham Case in 1622 in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Abraham, born in Gloucestershire, served as a soldier in the thirty years war. When he returned he married a girl from Wiltshire and settled in Shaftesbury.
He had seen the fashions in Europe and realised that buttons were going to be in high demand. The first buttons were the high top style made from a ram horn disk, material and thread.
These were mainly used on gentlemen’s doublets or peascod. These items of clothing were made with stiff fabric but as the fashion changed over time to softer looser clothing the Dorset Button and the Dorset Knob were created.
Dorset Long Horn Sheep
Abraham’s two sons continued the business after him and in the 1730s Abraham’s grandson Peter took over the business and introduced the metal ring.
The metal being sent from Birmingham. This gave way to new designs such at the cartwheel. Peter employed a manager, John Clayton from York.
Around this time there were approx 700 workers but by the late 1700s there was more than 4000 in Shaftesbury and 3000 in Blandford. The majority of the workers were women but some men and quite a few children also were employed.
Peter’s business earned approx £12,000 per year.
An experienced buttoner could produce more than 70 buttons a day being paid by piece work. It earned women an attractive wage and they could look after their families while working from home. Just like today it was a conveniently portable craft. Women would gather together in one house with their work. This traditional cottage craft was passed down through generations of families in Dorset. The skills were usually passed from mother to daughter, being a very female dominated craft. The buttons were always produced with natural coloured thread and then sent ot a dyers often together with cloth for clothing to be dyed together in matching colour.
By the second half of the 1700s Dorset Buttons were in such high demand they were exported all over the world, mostly through ports near Liverpool. They were sorted and batched onto coloured cards according to quality and who they would be sold to.
Pink card – nobility and gentry
Dark blue card – middle class
Yellow card – lower class
Black – general UK sales
Various other designs where created in different regions of Dorset such as Blandford from in and around Blandford village. Or named after the family who created them, ie. Singleton. Other styles were created for different types of garments.
Unfortunately, like many other hand made skills, the industrial revolution was the start of the end of the Dorset Button. John Aston invented a button making machine which was shown at the Great Exhibition for Victoria and Albert at Crystal Palace in 1851.
Traditionally now Dorset Buttons are made with Pearl (Perle) thread and a brass curtain ring. Some people from Dorset still learned the skill up to the 1970s in primary schools as more of a hobby than a serious profession. Modern designs are now popular such as the tree or posy.
The last member of the Case family, William Case, who was still involved in the button business died in 1912.
