I love to play dress up. It is one of my favorite things. When the ad for the sale Julie and I went to said, "Hats from around the world" I was intrigued.
To wander around Mr. Woolley's mobile home revealed a life well lived... one of travel and dress up, too. There were several boxes of hats. The four treasures I chose cost me $20 total. I had no idea of their true value.Battersby Hats (1895), a hat manufacturer of Stockport, England, once had a capacity of 12,000 hats per week but it declined in the second half of the twentieth century and merged with other hat manufacturers in 1966 before hat production ceased altogether in 1997.My bowler is far from pristine. It looks like it was worn often and thoroughly loved so while its value isn't top dollar, it is still a treasure to me.
Hats, in their day, had an inscription which identified from what shop the hat was purchased. My bowler came all they way from Bruges and, most likely, sometime in the 20s. Très génial!The Coucke-Maerten Chapeau seller was on this street: Rue de Pierres. Wild.The coolest and most perfect of my purchases was this Vintage Rattan Hard British Safari Hat.And how about this Vintage Tyrolean Hat, Bavarian hat or Alpine hat with travel pins? I love the shout out to Tahoe. My hat is perfect and while it doesn't have as many pins as the one being sold for $175, it is still worth every penny (500 pennies to be exact) I paid for it."Channel the spirit of Harold Lloyd in this 1920’s boater!" This classic boater hat is made of yeddo (knotted straw) that has been pressed and woven and is decorated with black grosgrain ribbon around the crown. It has a leather hat band and a net lining. Marked "Best Quality, New Style” and "Fine Quality, Master Mode, Shower Proof". I'm fascinated that "shower proof" would be an advertised quality of such a summer hat!And why do we want to channel Harold Clayton Lloyd Sr. (April 20, 1893 – March 8, 1971)? This American actor, comedian, and stunt performer appeared in many silent comedy films. He is considered, alongside Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, as one of the most influential film comedians of the silent film era. Lloyd made nearly 200 comedy films, both silent and "talkies", between 1914 and 1947. His bespectacled "Glasses" character, with a straw boater hat, was a resourceful, success-seeking go-getter who matched the zeitgeist of the 1920s-era United States.I hope Mr. Woolley knows that his treasured hats went to someone who will love them and wear them excitedly.“Some hats can only be worn if you're willing to be jaunty,
to set them at an angle and to walk beneath them
with a spring in your stride
as if you're only a step away from dancing.
They demand a lot of you.”
― Neil Gaiman
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1 comments:
Wow. Love that safari hat. Amazing. Please let me borrow it if I ever go on safari!!!
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