Button making had been in existence as a craft in Dorset for many centuries when, in the 17th century, Abraham Case moved to Shaftesbury, Dorset following a career as a soldier during which he travelled in France and Belgium where he became familiar with the European button industry. At this time buttons were seen very much as a status symbol and there was a high demand for intricate, ornate buttons for gentlemen’s waistcoats. Abraham Case’s contribution to the Dorset button-making industry, which was very much a cottage industry, was to place the whole process on a more business-like footing. It also seems likely the methods he introduced combined the techniques he had seen on the Continent with the traditional Dorset techniques. Initially the buttons were made from a disc of the horn of Dorset Sheep which provided a plentiful source of raw materials. The disk was covered with a piece of cloth and then overworked with a fine tracery of linen thread.The diameter of the buttons ranged from half an inch down to an unbelievable eighth of an inch.
century employed thousands of people and brought in a revenue of twelve thousand pounds per annum. When Abraham Cash died ash died, his sons Abraham Jr and Elias took over. Production grew and grew and the family managed to keep much of the business in their own hands by paying their workers in goods not money to stop them setting up for themselves. By the beginning of the nineteenth century there were depots in many Dorset towns for the outworkers to collect the materials from and sell their finished buttons to. Cloth covered buttons were sold at between eightpence and three 10 shillings a dozen, while the women workers averaged about two shillings a day for making approximately six or seven dozen buttons, compared with the nine-pence a day they might expect from farm-work, their only realistic alternative employment. Although it was a major factor, it wasn’t just the money that attracted so many women to this cottage based industry, as there were many other advantages. Working indoors was always preferable to being out in the fields in all weathers. It enabled women to be at home to look after the family whilst still retaining an income. Apart from the direct benefits, there was at least one indirect benefit that was very important when money was tight. Their clothes and particularly their shoes, didn’t wear out at anything like the rate they did when worn in the fields in all weathers. It was therefore no surprise that poorer women flocked to join in this new cottage industry. Twenty years later there was a further revolution in the button making industry when Abraham Case’s grandson started importing metal rings from Birmingham to use as the base for the buttons instead of horn. They were far easier to work with - and cheaper. Combined with the ready supply of labour the industry now spread out in all directions, reaching as far south as Bere Regis.
The earliest buttons produced by Case were High Tops, conical in shape and Dorset Knobs, similar but flatter (the famous Dorset Knob biscuit is named after a button!). This shape was very popular for ladies’ dresses. The industry thrived, and by the early 18th
But the glory days came to an end when, in 1851 at the Great Exhibition in London, Mr John Ashton demonstrated his button-making machine. This spelled disaster for the Dorset button industry as buttons could now be produced at a fraction of the cost, and at a far faster and more consistent speed – all identical. Near starvation hit most families, especially those with widowed breadwinners who had depended totally on their earnings from button making.
