My great grandmother must have been one of the last of the Dorset button makers. She was the wife of an ag lab, and made buttons at the time when the industry was dying out around the 1850's - 60's.
One lovely thing is that she taught my mother, as a child, to make the Dorset buttons, and I have a sampler my mother made when she was seven .... she was disabled .... and in her teens was trained to be a very talented court dressmaker.
I have a small booklet I got (I think in the Dorchester Museum) called 'The History of Handmade Buttons in Dorset' by Marion Howitt. My daughter and I have learned how to make them from the book !
I have my mothers buttons, made in about 1913, and I also have put photos of them up on RootsChat before .... but ....
.... I can find neither just now ! I'll keep searching ....
