Weaving Silk Stories - research & making - it all began with (thread) buttons

"The word passementerie has become synonymous with a wide variety of textile trimmings, including buttons, braids, fringing, tassels and other decorative elements. It derives from the French, and originates from ‘passement’, a gold or silver lace or braid, and ‘parchmentry’, which included trims that used parchment wrapped in silk...these terms seem to come into the English language during the 16th century..."

- https://www.ginabsilkworks.co.uk/ginabshop/index.php/resources/562-a-brief-history-of-passementerie

You can see stunning examples of the skill of historic practitioners of passementerie in most grand houses and palaces the world over, because trimmings are certainly an element of interior design. Versailles has some particularly fine examples. Historic Royal Palaces likewise. Here are just a few from the William III apartments at Hampton Court Palace.

There is fringing on the canopy in the throne room, there is fringing on some of the swords in the armoury, there are tassels and fringing on the throne itself and its footstall, it even looks like tassels and chord are holding the Queen Anne era chandelier in place, though I think it's likely that there are other fittings beneath the regal red decorative ones.

But in the context of this research we are considering passementerie for the important role it has also played in the history of fashion. One of the one-third life sized dresses that will feature as part of a collection by The House of Embroidered Paper for the first time in 2027 will be a Victorian style crinoline, and in the post about that piece we will return to several examples such as the one (below) that are held in the Royal Ceremonial Dress collection. That is, Queen Victoria's mourning bodices. At certain points the Victorians demonstrated a near obsession with fringing everything both in their home and their wardrobes.

From the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection

In this post I want to concentrate on a different aspect of the art of the passementerie practitioner. One that is of key importance to the maker and wearer of fashion. But which is also of key importance to the history of the use of silk thread in the UK. Which in fact marks the beginning of that history. That is, the decorative button; more specifically the silk thread button.

As part of the making of the court dress (titled Symphony of Stars) made for the last collection The Regency Wardrobe two members of the volunteer team of The House of Embroidered Paper made half a dozen Dorset thread buttons. As part of the research for that piece I had come across the fact that the Dorset button was celebrating its 400th anniversary in the year we were working toward (2022). When we began learning how to make Dorset buttons little did we realise the world of passementerie we had opened up before us.

Dorset thread buttons made by Kerry Crofton and Jane Quail

To read more about the history of the Dorset button please visit: https://henrysbuttons.co.uk/history.html

Learning how to make twisted chord by hand early on during the making of The Regency Wardrobe had proved an invaluable skill. I had also learnt how to make a very simple tassels and buttons using paper wrapped over card. But becoming aware of ring or disk thread wrapped buttons was to prove not only decoratively advantageous but historically and subjectively relevant. For the rings wrapped 400 years ago, as part of a cottage industry of artisans based in Dorset, would have been wrapped in silk thread. And working with silk thread (plus paper) was where we were headed.

In Britain it was in the making of buttons that silk (thread) was first used.

The growth of Macclesfield into the biggest producer of finished silk in the world began in the most modest way imaginable. In the years before the industrial revolution, farming families in the area would earn a small second income by making handmade silk buttons. This cottage industry was the starting point for the town’s evolution into a manufacturing centre with at least 5,000 looms and more than 70 factories.

- https://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/homes-and-gardens/places-to-live/22597728.threads-entwine-macclesfields-past-present/

So we wanted to learn more thread buttons. The next one Kerry, Jane and I would go on learn was the Yorkshire button, then there was the Macclesfield button.

Normally you stuff a Yorkshire button, wrap a Macclesfield button over a wooden disk and a Dorset button around a metal ring. Because all of the garments made by The House of Embroidered Paper are made of only paper (including card) and thread we had to be resourceful. For the Dorset buttons above we had cut rings off the end of clingfilm cardboard inner tubes, strengthened with glue; for the Macclesfield button we used cardboard disks and we were able to use raw silk or screwed up tissue paper to stuff our Yorkshire button experiments.

Having made a good start learning at home Kerry and I went to visit Macclesfield Silk Museum as part of the research for the Weaving Silk Stories project (you can read more about the visit in this post) and we were able to see the small collection of Macclesfield silk thread buttons they have there.

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We had been practising the larger size but I was aware I was going to be making some one-third life sized dresses as part of the new collection so seeing that they also had tiny historic thread buttons (presumably for cuffs etc) was reassuring. It seemed they could be made on a small scale.

"The Mottershead family were involved in the early Macclesfield silk button trade and through a series of letters it is revealed that there was a sizeable trade from 1649. It was a cottage industry involving women and children. In 1698 the corporation directed that 'poor children or other poor' should be instructed in the making of buttons. They then could then be employed as 'outworkers' for Macclesfield merchants who bought the materials wholesale and then marketed the finished buttons. Samuel Finney of Wilmslow described this and explained that a good woman could earn four shillings a week, and even a child of six could support themselves by assisting in the preparatory processes. In 1749 the manufacture of silk buttons was the principal industry of the town, but by 1795 it had been superseded, as buttons made from horn became more common. The legacy was a pool of labour with silk preparation skills, and established lines of supply and distribution. In 1765 it is estimated that 15,000 people were working in silk in the town and the surrounding villages. Some buttons were traded by chapmen, but others were sent via Manchester and exported through Bristol and London to the Netherlands, New York and Moscow. John Brocḱlehurst was such a chapman and he enter partnership in 1745 with Messrs Acton and Street who were 'putters out'. Charles Roe was a silk button merchant. Woven silk was obtained from the Huguenots in Spitalfields, who in turn used the yarn supplied by the silk throwsters in small shades or throwing houses in Macclesfield."

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silk_industry_of_Cheshire

And there were other button treasures in the Macclesfield Silk Museum collection which you can see in the following images:

Note: As different thread button designs developed not all were

specifically attributed to a place. In fact many of the names and making

methods appear unique, intricately personal, and often lost to history.

The best thing I can recommend to anyone starting to learn thread button

making and/or anyone who would just like see more examples of different designs,

some historic and some developed by a contemporary maker, researcher

and designer in this area is to look at work of Gina B Silkworks

"(Object no. 1987/1215) There doesn’t seem to be an official description. In the records these are described as “herringbone (a) & (d) & lines (b) & (c) on radiating triangles & leaves & circles”. The one on the left is a or d and the one on the right is b or c. An old display label identified them as Yorkshire Buttons." © Macclesfield Silk Museum

Above bottom right:

"(Object no. 1987/1012) there is no description in the formal records beyond “thread-covered”. However, earlier interpretation identified them as Dorset High Tops." © Macclesfield Silk Museum

The label for the buttons bottom left (catalogue number 2007/57) reads:

“Herringbone covered buttons, possibly Dorset." © Macclesfield Silk Museum

The curator told me they wondered if this latter descriptive addition relates more to the stitch style than the button style.

Below top right

"(Object no. 1985/6910) are described only as “embroidery spiders web (back stitch)” in the records. An earlier label described them as “ Three fabric covered buttons with an embroidered star burst.” " © Macclesfield Silk Museum

as above in blue

"(Object no. 1987/6) – described only as “herringbone”"

Above:

"The green button (Object no. 1986/5303) is described in the museum records as “flower inside web of interlocking triangles, covered & embroidered, chain (&satin?) stitch.” The navy button (Object no. 1986/5302) is described as “flower inside web of interlocking triangles, covered & embroidered, chain (&satin?) stitch.” The black square button (Object no. 1987/3) is described as “chequered stripes & rectangles”. Regarding the pink button (unknown accession number) the only information on this comes from display label which describes it as “A pink thread wrapped dome shaped silk button”.

Brass rings are employed in the making of Dorset buttons, which are probably one of the best known types of thread button. but in the photo above you can also see examples of carved moulds/domes over which certain designs were/are constructed; by winding, looping and stitching thread. Those little mounds were often made of wood. It seemed that if we were going to attempt any of those we might need first to make domes from papier mache.

Here you can see silk wrapping in pink silk thread from Whitchurch Silk Museum over a papier mache dome. Silk wrapping is the way that domes are covered for some of the decorative needlework button designs.

This was my first attempt at the Open Grappe design that you can find on one of Gina B's instruction dvds.

And here is a stunning example of a domed button from a doublet in the Historic Royal Palace collection: I will be including more piece in a forthcoming blog post titled Decorated men.

"Silver lame, trimmed with silver braid. Decorated domed wooden buttons covered with silver wire, set in vertical rows...Fastening centre front with 9 buttonholes and 8 corresponding buttonholes."

From the Royal Ceremonial Dress Collection catalogue text

Here are a few more wonderful historic examples:

please click on each image to be taken direct to the source and see the button in detail

including on this doublet: https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O127192/doublet-unknown/?carousel-image=2006BF0528

I have mentioned the Yorkshire button above and as we learnt the technique I realised that I was as inspired by the shape of the thread work before it is stuffed and made round as after. You can see its shape here (in blue) stuck in my sketchbook alongside samples of Tenerife lace. The correspondence with lace in general was something I determined to explore.

For detailed instructions on how to make a Yorkshire button please see: https://maryhickmott.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/yorkshire-buttons-set-of-6-pages.pdf

I have googled Yorkshire button history but not gotten very far. If anyone reading this knows anything more in this regard please use the contact page of this website to get in touch. I found this about the history of making buttons in that area of the country:

"The making of buttons is likely to have started out as a side-line for Yorkshire cutlers in the 1600s, but by the second half of the century the occupation was established independently: 1669 Peter Elston, button-maker, Fewston. In the years 1685-7 three Sheffield men, John Jarvis, John Bate and John Offerton were named as button-makers in the Quarter Sessions records and soon afterwards the craft was recorded in the Sheffield parish register: 1698 Beniam Mitchell, button maker’. It was a logical development, since the cutler had skills which enabled him to work not only metal but materials such as bone, horn and pearl. When Thomas Boulsover discovered how to plate copper with silver in 1743 he set up in business as a buttonmaker. In 1787 Gales and Martin’s Directory for Sheffield named ten metal button manufacturers, four of whom made ‘gild and plated’ buttons: there were 13 small firms making horn buttons in the town and five more close by."- https://yorkshiredictionary.york.ac.uk/words/buttonmaker

The buttons referred to above are not thread buttons but we know that all button making (including thread buttons) tended to begin as a side line to the silk and cotton weaving industries.

Below you can see more of our early experiments. These are (from top left to right and then bottom left to right) the: Basketweave; Staphorst; Wrapped star; Woven star; Shirtlace; Maze; Leek cross; Cross; Buffalo diamond (x 2).

The names I have attributed to them come from Gina B Silkworks

And here is a lovely example of historic Cross Button on a waistcoat from c.1795.

The waistcoat was on show at Dressing the Georgians at The Queens Gallery, Buckingham Palace 2023.

These are the: Silk wrapped; Catherine wheel; Spider web variation (with a tissue paper covered dome); Shirtlace star; Star wheel; Pinwheel with a twist.

These are the: Railroad; Wave; Intersection; Grantham; Maze.

Here a couple of lovely historic designs of thread button on two 19th century dresses from the collection at Worthing Museum.

And this is a historic example from a cotton pelisse in the collection at Chertsey Museum

Below you can see two styles that mix a wrapped thread base with wire from the private collection of Stephanie Selmayr.

Last of all a mostly metal button but with thread (and wire) work decoration on it from the collection at Macclesfield museum.

Again I will be showing more of this waistcoat in my future post Decorated men.

Button designs for pieces in the Weaving Silk Stories collection:

During the stage of designing the garments in the Weaving Silk Stories collection I could see how certain button designs on historic garments or in books would relate. We just had to figure out how to make them and then correspond the colours we wanted to work in accordingly.

As I write this the process is ongoing so I can only give you examples of some of the buttons you will see on the garments in this collection. We began by learning the first design on a ring and then worked out how to embroider it instead onto paper so that it could be applied flat to the dress or wrapped around a cardboard base to make a button. Many beautiful historic buttons were likewise embroidered on fabric. The button you in red pink and gold you can see below is the Starwheel.

And I have been experimenting with twisting fine silk thread into chord which can be spiralled on the surface of a cardboard base. Finally I wanted to show an experiment that I hope to integrate, using a non circular shape to wrap around.

I began this post by talking about passementerie more generally, of which button making is only a part. The skills to make tassels, chord, woven braid etc are all learnt by experts in this field. As other research posts for this project are released you will be able to see examples of how I and The House of Embroidered Paper's volunteer team learnt/and adapted some of the universe of designs that historical passementerie practitioners developed, according to the demands of the paper garments I had designed. Volunteers Kerry and Denise spent time with the amazing passementerie practitioner Elizabeth Ashdown Kerry even bought herself a table top loom so as to be able to weave braid for our pieces. Whilst passementerie skills are still established in France they are sadly on the endangered list of Heritage crafts in England.

There are few passementerie makers here but from what I can see these include:

https://www.turnellandgigon.com/about-us/the-art-of-passementerie

http://www.annacrutchley.co.uk/

https://www.wendycushingdesigns.com/

https://www.clarehedges.com/