Riding hats?

B

Bulldog

Registered Guest
I really know nothing about hats and I haven't had much success using Google to even find out anything about the company that made these two hats. As you can see from the photos below of the inside of the crown, both hats were made by Young Bros. of Brooklyn. They look to me like a lady's riding hat, but I am unsure of the era or value of these hats. One of the hats seems to be covered in some type of hair. In my research, it appears that quite a few riding hats were beaver skin, but I know so little about it that I really have no idea if this may be what it is covered in or not.

Sorry about most of the pics being on their side. I rotated them in Photobucket, but it doesn't seem the file itself got changed.

Any help or suggestions are greatly appreciated!

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Hi,

Lovely hats. The first one is made of silk plush (also called hatter's plush), which was a "lost"special process made to imitate beaver felt. The second one is silk faille. The first one looks too tall to be a ladies riding hat, they were usually shorter in the crown, but I cannot tell the height from just a photo. I am also not sure they are woman's hats...I cannot see the entire inside. The first one looks like a man's hat to me. The second one I cannot see the inside too well, and it could be woman's riding hat for side saddle.

B
 
Boy, you have good eyes! I cannot see any evidence of wire inside or outside of the second hat. Where the heck are my eyeglasses? I did think they both were men's hats from what I could see, and the silk faille looks just like an Opera hat, but bulldog seems to feel it is a woman's hat.

Bulldog...is there something more you can show us? Why do you think it/they are a lady's hat?
 
Bulldog....see if you can collapse the hat by holding it with the brim against your chest and pressing down evenly and gently but firmly on the top (tip) of the hat's crown. It should collapse easily. Can you see or feel evidence of wires inside the hat? I am not seeing them....

NOTE: If you do not feel or see evidence of wires inside the hat, check with care before trying to collapse it to avoid damage if it is not collapsible. You can also try just to press down only on 1 side of the top/top of the crown, and it may tilt" down a bit on that side, a sure way to determine it will collapse with pressure. To get it to go back "up" after it collapses, I usually just tap it on my thigh and it pops right up.
 
The 2nd hat is a man's opera hat which is meant to be collapsible although over the years, the collapsing mechanism inside the outer fabric and the lining may have seized up from age.

I like the little "ventilation" hole in the first hat and that probably was a man's top hat (may have been used for hunting) but these days, it would be suitable for a woman to use for side saddle riding as there isn't a distinction in style for top hats. The only distinction in top hats in the equestrian world these days, is dressage has shorter top hats while top hats for hunting (male and female) and for side saddle are the same tall style ones as was worn at the turn of the century.
 
I will measure them later and give you the dimensions. My main reason for suspecting they were women's hats is that they are so small. My wife wears a hat size 7 or 7 1/8 and both of these hats are far too small for her, sitting very high on her head. When I had seen pictures of ladies riding hats, they seemed to be worn high on their heads, above their hair. I am probably totally wrong, but that was my assumption.

Thank you for all of the responses so far! I try and see if the the silk hat can collapse or not and also get the dimensions of both hats.
 
Don't forget that young men (like teenagers) also wore top hats too for special occasions which is why the small sizes survive in good condition as they weren't worn very much as they were outgrown quickly :)
 
Top hats were worn high above the head in the 1870's and early 1880's only, these hats are much later than that. By the time these hast were made, women wearing top hats for riding, would have had them firmly planted on her head.
 
Yes, the silk one is collapsible! I felt the inside of it last night, could tell the wires were there and gave the method Barbara mentioned a try. It collapsed very easily and popped right back out easily as well!

So from what everyone has said, it sounds like these most likely would have been opera hats for a young man sometime around 1900, correct?
 
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