Misterstraat 39, Bredevoort (repurposed)
Dutch Button Works was a button factory in Bredevoort that existed from 1884 until 1976. During its heyday, approximately 270 people were employed by the company; at the time of its closure, the workforce numbered about 44.
The Horn Industry
Several button industries already existed in the Netherlands during the 19th century. The oldest in this field was established in 1815, though it primarily produced fabric buttons, particularly linen ones. Around 1900, companies in Germany and England began producing buttons from horn. Following this example, Willem te Gussinklo began manufacturing horn buttons in 1905. This was a first for the Netherlands: the first factory for buffalo horn buttons. Soon, his son Willem te Gussinklo Jr. (known as “Piepkes Willem”) joined the firm, developing into an innovative entrepreneur.
Te Gussinklo’s first factory was located at ’t Dal in Aalten, today’s Willemstraat. Production was initially entirely manual, with buttons made one by one. Due to increasing demand, he purchased the old Van Eijck weaving mill in Bredevoort in 1924, where button production commenced.
At that time, Bredevoort still had its own railway station. Every so often, a wagonload of horns would arrive from India, destined for the Bredevoort button industry. As the years passed, manufacturing became increasingly mechanised. Using machines built by the company’s own technicians, the product was eventually manufactured partly or entirely automatically. Slices, known as rondelles (blanks), were sawn from the horn. For this, both the solid tips of the buffalo horn and the hollow sections were utilised.
Export
The export of buttons was of great importance. Trade was primarily focused on English-speaking countries—England, Ireland, and North America—where Dutch Button Works enjoyed a fine reputation. Until the 1920s, the buttons produced were exclusively intended for men’s suits. However, when demand fell during the crisis of the early 1930s, ladies’ buttons were put into production as compensation, almost simultaneously with the manufacture of bone buttons. Bone buttons were intended for undergarments. Besides buttons, the factory in Bredevoort also manufactured walking sticks—specifically, the knob or handle and the tip were crafted from horn.
A few years after the Ten Dam & Manschot comb factory in Aalten ceased operations, DBW also took up the production of combs. During World War II, the company shifted to processing domestic horn. Besides buttons, ashtrays and bird figurines were popular items. Stag horn was used to manufacture buttons for hunting jackets, and discs of stag horn were fashioned into small ashtrays or candle holders on rosewood bases.
Before the war, DBW also had branches in Germany: in Berlin and Bocholt. After 1945, the company experienced a peak period. The third generation, W.A. te Gussinklo, joined the management. Demand for buttons was high. Many home workers were occupied with sewing buttons onto cards. The horn buttons found their way to garment factories. Sales representatives would travel with a “model jacket” made of various pieces of fabric sewn together—a multicoloured patchwork. On each piece of fabric, the most suitable buttons for that specific material were sewn.
In 1959, the company celebrated its 75th anniversary. At that time, there were over a hundred employees, excluding home workers. Due to increasing automation, the company achieved high turnover with fewer staff. In the second half of the 1950s, horn was largely superseded by plastics. In 1963, the management of DBW, together with an English button factory, took over the largest button factory in Germany.
Decline
The company suffered a heavy blow in 1968 when the director, W.A. te Gussinklo, died at the age of 51, just six months before his father. He was succeeded by his wife, B.A. te Gussinklo-Zandbergen. When her son H.J. Gussinklo Ohmann completed his studies at the technical university in Eindhoven a year later, he also joined the management. By then, the production system was entirely focused on plastic buttons (polyester), which the company had started producing itself around 1960. In the long run, however, it proved extremely difficult to remain competitive. Despite great efforts to keep the company running, they were forced to close DBW in 1976.
The municipality of Aalten purchased the complex in 1977, and it was resold to the firms Van Wezel and Voltman-Riviera. Later, the Albert ten Bruin car dealership was located here for many years.
Repurposing
At a municipal information evening in July 2008, the Vereniging Bredevoorts Belang (Bredevoort Interest Association) made a plea for the preservation and restoration of this characteristic building. They stated: “This building is the only remaining, tangible, and visible intact industrial heritage that Bredevoort still possesses, providing residents with a link to its extensive textile history. The factory building, still in its original state, has a striking, beautiful facade featuring the typical elements of an industrial building built in the third quarter of the nineteenth century.” The non-monumental parts were demolished in 2019. The monumental building has since been repurposed to house apartments and a supermarket.
Features
| Cadastral no. | A-2623 |
| Function | Button factory |
| Foundation | 1884 |
| Discontinuation | 1976 |
| Listed | Municipal monument |
