UKFT Member Courtney & Co has revived the craft of button-making in the UK from its premises in Bourton-on-the-Water, in the Cotswolds. Using both traditional methods and new technology, the business specialises in natural buttons made of corozo (tagua palm) and Codelite® (milk protein). 2023 represents a milestone for Courtney & Co. In addition to celebrating its 10^th anniversary, it is launching its first horn button range.

Its founders Andrea Courtney and her husband David, aim to preserve traditional techniques and pass them on to the next generation of skilled button makers. David said:

“While I am part of the ‘& Co’, my wife, Andrea is very much the ‘Courtney’ part of Courtney & Co. There are very few lady button makers in the world, let alone one that runs a button making company.”

Their venture into the world of button-making goes back to 2013, when Andrea and David fell upon an appeal for help to ‘Save Britain’s buttons’ in Country Life Magazine. The previous year, the UK’s only large-scale producer of horn buttons James Grove & Sons closed. Its 155 years of heritage were on the verge of disappearing.

To keep the craft alive in the UK, Andrea and David responded to the appeal and acquired James Grove & Sons’ last button-making machines. “It has been 10 years (June 2013) since we acquired the last specialist button making machines and heritage from James Grove & Sons Ltd,” said Andrea. Courtney & Co sold its first buttons in 2016.

Established in 1857, James Grove & Sons grew a worldwide reputation for its high-quality buttons. It supplied buttons to the armed and police forces, as well as to governmental organisations around the world, Savile Row tailors and global brands. At its peak, the business employed 600 people. Andrea explained:

“Given that James Grove was the last of its kind, we have had to learn everything about it ourselves and train our employees on how to turn, finish and dye buttons of different types (corozo, Codelite® and now horn).

We refer much to heritage patterns and techniques and have the James Grove Heritage Centre in our factory telling the story of the company and button-making itself.

We started with Corozo and sold our first buttons at the end of 2016 – it has taken us another 6 years to launch our horn button range – which was what made James Grove famous and globally revered.”

Guided by Andrea, Courtney & Co’s offering focuses around three natural raw materials: Codelite®, corozo and most recently, horn. Codelite® buttons, made from casein (milk protein), were first produced in the UK in 1910 but slowly got replaced by polyester buttons in the early 1970s. Compared to polyester, Codelite® buttons are naturally more sustainable and biodegradable.

Also known as ‘vegetable ivory’, corozo comes from the nut of the Tagua Palm, that grows in central America’s equatorial rainforests. A single tagua palm tree produces 1,800 nuts per year, which is sufficient to make thousands of corozo buttons.

Horn buttons are the newest products made by Courtney & Co. Considered a luxury material, horn usually comes from a water buffalo or an ox. James Grove & Sons was one of the first to produce horn buttons in the UK. With its new horn button range, Courtney & Co is reviving James Grove’s heritage. Andrea said:

“The materials and price points are such that we are aiming at the luxury/affordable luxury segment of the fashion world – not just tailoring and fashion houses, our customer also embrace umbrella makers and makers of duvets and bedding.”

Andrea continues to drive the business forward by significantly investing in people, sustainable production and state-of-the-art machines. Courtney & Co acquired new turning machines, a horn grinder as well as new and re-conditioned old polishing barrels, and installed a dye-shop in the factory to ensure that every step of the button-making process is carried out in-house.

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