During the Second World War Butler was a conscientious objector and worked as a village blacksmith. Afterwards, although he returned to his job as an architect, he spent more and more time on sculpture. In 1948 he made his first work in forged iron and the following year had his first exhibition. This work dates from the period when he was Gregory Fellow in sculpture at Leeds University, from 1950-3. It has been suggested that ‘Archaic Head II’ was inspired by nail-studded Nkisi figures from the Congo. One was exhibited in ‘40,000 Years of Modern Art’ at the Institute of Contemporary Art in London, 1948, captioned “Carved figure used for causing harm by magical means”.