These passementerie companies continue today in making some of the more basic buttons for use in upholstery and interiors, but not the complex designs of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. By the latter part of the eighteenth century more of these buttons were made in workshops that combined other forms of passementerie under one roof and, as with the Dorset industry, advances in machinery to make cloth covered buttons saw the demand for thread buttons decline. This button design is still officially a regulation for clergy and legal court dress, although machine made substitutes are usually used. The buttons from this area do not have as many names that are still known as with the Dorsets, however the Death’s Head button – a quartered thread wrapped design – is perhaps the most famous, and can be seen depicted on many portraits and survives on coats and waistcoats from the period. Defoe mentions Macclesfield buttons, “the buttons from Macclesfield in Cheshire” in The Complete English Tradesman of 1726. The majority of button makers were outworkers, supplied with the materials to create the button and paid for work completed. By the middle of the seventeenth century Macclesfield was famous for its buttons, with the industry also employing workers to wind the silk thread. The earliest record of button making in Macclesfield is a entry of debt in the town accounts in 1574. These buttons were primarily made of silk, mohair, or other types of specialist fine threads, wrapped and woven over a wooden button mould. In Staffordshire and Cheshire, an entirely different type of button making was flourishing at the same time. Individuals buttoners run workshops to pass the buttony craft on to the next generation. The Dorset Arts and Craft Association still encourage buttony with a section in their annual exhibition for Dorset Crafts. Nowadays it is also recognized as part of the local heritage of Dorset. The technique has been passed from generation to generation of knitters and stitchers. Luckily, the art of the buttoner did not completely die out. Sadly, the onset of the first world war ensured the enterprise did not survive. Lady Lees of Lychett Minster attempted to revive the craft in 1904, having purchased the old stock, and learning from older makers who knew the designs. However, the cloth button making machine was invented in 1825, and so began the gradual decline. As these buttons could withstand the washing process better than others, they were most often used on shirts, undergarments and other forms of linen garment. There are many different designs for these ring buttons, with names such as Crosswheel, cartwheel, yarrel, basketweave, birdseye, mite, and singleton (this latter still retaining a fabric ground).īy the early eighteenth century the industry employed thousands of workers. By the early eighteenth century, flat buttons began to be worked over fine wire rings, worked with threads only. The first buttons produced in this area were high tops and knobs, with discs of sheep’s horn and linen moulded shapes, which were covered with needlework in fine linen threads. The Dorset industry is traditionally believed to have been started by Abraham Case in the seventeenth century. Probably the most well-known of these is the Dorset button industry. Passementerie thread and cloth buttons were, on the whole, cottage industries, with particular techniques associated with different places. London was a centre for silkwomen, some of whom worked together, but there was never a proper gild structure. At this time, passementerie items such as silk buttons were primarily made by women, known as silkwomen. Some of the earliest accounts of silk buttons being made for sale in the country are from the Royal Wardrobe accounts, and include entries such as ‘a mantel lace of blue silk with botons of the same’ in 1480. of professionals (sideline to main income) of professionals (main income)Ĭurrent no.
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