Man's High Black Beaver Hat
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Description
This black top hat is made out of beaver. Although top hats were also made from silk at this time, microscopic tests reveal that the fiber is indeed an animal hair fiber, not silk. According to "A Day at a Hat-Factory" published in The Penny Magazine in January, 1841, "[A] beaver hat consists mainly of two parts - the body and the covering; the former of which is made with fine wool and coarse fur, mixed, felted, stiffened and shaped; and the latter of beaver fur, made to adhere to the body by the process of felting." (Henderson). Black beaver hats were quite expensive in the mid-nineteenth century because beavers had almost become extinct. Their fur produced a strong, almost waterproof material. This hat has a buckle with a black grosgrain ribbon and carries the label, Melton, 154 Regent Street, London.
The first top hat was worn in 1797 by a man named John Hetherington (Carver). John was a haberdasher, meaning he dealt in men’s clothing. When John Hetherington first wore this top hat it caused a huge panic and even made a few women pass out from the shock. He had to go to court because of wearing “a tall structure having a shining luster calculated to frighten timid people” (Carver). In 1823, Antonie Gibus made the top hat more portable so that it could be stored under the seat at the opera, and it be easier to travel with. In the 1850s Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert, started to wear the top hat and that’s when the style really took off.
References
Carver, Lou. “Top This . . . The Story of Top Hats.” VICTORIANA MAGAZINE, www.victoriana.com/Mens-Clothing/tophats.htm.
“How Much Did a Beaver Hat Cost? (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/articles/beaverhat.htm.
Henderson, Debbie. "The Top Hat. An Illustrated History." Yellow Springs [OH]: The Wild Goose Press, 2000.
Source
Maude Ide Streeter Crabbs (Mrs. Frank W. Crabbs)