This text was copied from Wikipedia on 21 December 2024 at 5:10AM.
1886 cabinet card photograph of men in beaver hats
A beaver hat is a hat made from feltedbeaver fur. They were fashionable across much of Europe during the period 1550–1850 because the soft yet resilient material could be easily combed to make a variety of hat shapes (including the familiar top hat).[1] Smaller hats made of beaver were sometimes called beaverkins,[2] as in Thomas Carlyle's description of his wife as a child.[3]
Used winter coats worn by Native Americans were a prized commodity for hat making because their wear helped prepare the skins, separating out the coarser hairs from the pelts.[4]
To make felt, the underhairs were shaved from the beaver pelt and mixed with a vibrating hatter's bow. The matted fabric was pummeled and boiled repeatedly, resulting in a shrunken and thickened felt. Filled over a hat-form block, the felt was pressed and steamed into shape. The hat maker then brushed the outside surface to a sheen.[5]
Evidence of felted beaver hats in western Europe can be found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, written in the late 14th century: "A Merchant was there with a forked beard / In motley, and high on his horse he sat, / Upon his head a Flandrish [Flemish] beaver hat."[6] Demand for beaver fur led to the near-extinction of the Eurasian beaver and the North American beaver in succession. It seems likely that only a sudden change in style saved the beaver.[7]
Beaver hats were made in various styles as a matter of civil status:
the Wellington (1820–40)
the Paris beau (1815)
Black beaver hat with high, straight-sided, flat-topped, oval-shaped crown; flat narrow brim up-turned slightly at sides; narrow (1/2" wide) black cross-grain ribbon encircles base of crown, tied in small bow at side; tan felt-lined sides; crown top lined with red and black checked paper; royal blue shield-shaped paper, label marked "PARIS" glued to center of paper lining; approx. 4 1/2" width of sides extending from top lined with red and black plaid paper; edges of brim and crown frayed and worn, 3" long tear in paper lining sides; - Worn by Benedict Macy (1819–1910)the D'Orsay (1820)
the Regent (1825)
the clerical (18th century).
In addition, beaver hats were made in various styles as a matter of military status:
The popularity of the beaver hat declined in the early/mid-19th century as silk hats became more fashionable across Europe.
In Judaism
A Biberhut or Bieber Hit (Biber is the German word for beaver) is a hat worn by some Ashkenazi Jewish men, mainly members of Hasidic Judaism.
Two variations exist; the Flache (flat) Bieber Hat, which is mainly worn by adherents of Satmar Hasidim and some Yerushalmi Jews, and the Hoiche (tall) Bieber Hat also referred to as the Polish Hat, worn by most other Hasidic Jews.
^Carlyle, Thomas (2012) [1881]. Froude, James Anthony (ed.). Reminscences. Cambridge University Press. ISBN9781108044790. ...dainty little cap, perhaps little beaverkin (with flap turned up)...
^Hämäläinen, Pekka, 1967- (2019-10-22). Lakota America : a new history of indigenous power. New Haven. ISBN978-0-300-21595-3. OCLC1089959340.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
On the same page, 570, of the L&M Companion's Large Glossary, we have BEVER: ii.127, beaver, fur hat and BEAVER: ii.203, hat made of beaver's fur or of an imitation of it: 1528 (apparently the earliest OED usage of it in that sense)
"The initial stage in the hat making process would be the plucking of the coarse guard hairs from the beaver pelt, which was then brushed, with a solution of nitrate of mercury.
This would raise the scales on the fur shafts so that they would become firmly locked together. This process became known as "carotting" and if carried out in a poorly ventilated room, the mercury fumes could damage the brain, hence the expression "mad as a hatter". The fibres would then be cut from the skin and placed on a bench in a workroom known as the "hurdle". Over the bench would be suspended a hatter's bow, very much like an oversized violin bow and the fibres responded to the vibrations of the bow which was controlled by the craftsmen, separating themselves and becoming evenly distributed until they had formed into a thick but loosely structured mat of material known as the "batt". Several batts would then be shaped into a cone and reduced in size by boiling and then rolled to create a firm dense felt. The hood would then be sent onto the hatter who would mould it to the required shape and then line and finish it."
Beaver hats were any hat made of felted beaver fur; they were quite expensive and began to be manufactured in England during the Elizabethan period. The demand for Beaver fur to make felted hats (which looked like a gentleman's silk top hat) was great enough to spur on the American Fur trade (roughly 1620-1850).
1600–50 in Western European fashion - Wikipedia Wikipedia250 × 309Search by image Frans Hals' Laughing Cavalier (in the Wallace Collection) wears a slashed doublet, wide reticella lace collar and cuffs, and a broadbrimmed hat, 1624. https://www.google.com/search?q=1…:
Hats, like other forms of dress, played a large role in reflecting one’s social identity. The shape and style of one’s hat indicated to a passerby one’s profession, wealth, and social rank and position. Color, shape, and material all carried specific meaning.
In Ecclesiastical heraldry, for example, a red, wide-brimmed hat indicated that its wearer was a cardinal, and interactions required a specific social protocol.
In 17th century England, the shape and style of one’s hat reflected political and religious affiliation. Due to the expense of a beaver hat, being able to purchase one made a visual statement about one’s wealth and social status. https://humwp.ucsc.edu/cwh/feinst…
Felt is made by applying heat and pressure to a collection of fibers, and beaver fur is particularly suited for felting because of the way the strands of fur stick together. It was much harder to make felt by hand when the guard hairs were plucked from the pelt by hand, then mercury was brushed over the pelt to roughen the fiber and help each hair to stick to the next. The pelt was dried and then shaved.
The resulting fluff was mixed and then carded. Carding is a process of raking to get all the fibers running in the same direction. Next, the hatter weighed out the quantity of fluff he needed for a particular style of hat. The fluff then went through a process called bowing to begin the process of sticking all the fibres together. The object was to create two large oval sheets about 4 ft long, 3 ft wide and 6 to 12 inches high, called batts. Now the hatter used heat, pressure (from his hands), and moisture to compress this batt. The process released mercury, which the hatter absorbed.
Over time, hatters developed mercury poisoning, which is where we get the phrase 'mad as a hatter'. At the end of this process, the two batts have been put back together into a large cone.
Then comes planking -– dipping the cone into a hot solution of diluted sulfuric acid, beer-grounds and wine sediments, then working it by hand on planks around the kettle and doing it all over again until the felt was half its size.
After that came blocking, dying, stiffening, brushing, and lining, until the hat was ready for the market. The shape of hats changed according to fashion.
The process remains much the same today, except without the mercury poisoning and with machines doing the work https://judeknightauthor.com/2021…
King Charles I had a hat for every day -- one was so large it was made from 12 beavers.
Found throughout most of the United States and Canada, the beaver (Castor canadensis) is the largest rodent in North America. From 30 to 40 inches long and weighing as much as 60 lbs., the beaver is unique among rodents in possessing webbed rear feet and a broad, flat tail.
Historically, it was eaten as a delicacy by many Native American tribes, a custom adopted by colonial Americans and early frontier residents. Water and wood dependent, the beaver is herbaceous, preferring the bark of deciduous trees along with a variety of aquatic plants and grasses. Its propagation is guaranteed by pond-building activity associated with damming of streams in the process of creating lodges. Once described by naturalist Enos A. Mills as "the original conservationist," beaver-engineered dams and diversion ponds serve to prevent floods and loss of surface soils during spring thaws and summer rainstorms.
Since the 16th century, the beaver has been the target of Indians and European immigrants alike for its luxurious pelt. Also, its underwool — prized for its suppleness and water resistance — has been commercially valuable in the felting industry for the making of hats.
The earliest European efforts to settle colonies along the St. Lawrence River and in New England were funded by a beaver trade that soon spread into the interior of North America, generating intense intertribal and international rivalries among competing groups.
French, English, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, and Spanish fur trading companies were organized to tap the wealth that beaver skins afforded on the European fur market based in London and Leipzig.
Two types of pelts were sought. One was coat beaver, or castor gras — pelts that had been worn by Indians for at least one winter, so that the outer or "guard" hairs were loosened for easier processing by felters. The other was parchment beaver or castor sec — those pelts trapped, skinned, and flattened for easy storage and shipment in bales.
In 1638, King Charles decreed that all fur hats manufactured in England be made of North American beaver, fueling a series of beaver wars between the Iroquois and their English allies and the French and their Indian allies. Towns such as Albany (1624) and Montreal (1642) were established as fur trade entrepôts, servicing large hinterlands.
The French dominated the fur trade until 1763, with beaver replacing cod as New France's primary staple export. After the fall of New France, the fur industry was dominated by the London-based Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670 with the exclusive right to trade and trap the lands that drain into Hudson Bay. Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/beav…
The most valuable part of the beaver is its inner fur whose many minute barbs make it excellent for felting, especially for hats. In Canada a 'made beaver' or castor gras that an Indian had worn or slept on was more valuable than a fresh skin since this tended to wear off the outer guard hairs.
Beaver pelts were used for barter by Native Americans in the 17th century to gain European goods. They were then shipped back to Great Britain and France where they were made into clothing items. Widespread hunting and trapping of beavers led to their endangerment. Eventually, the fur trade declined due to decreasing demand in Europe and the takeover of trapping grounds to support the growing agriculture sector. Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/beav…
In the 17th century, based on a question raised by the Bishop of Quebec, the Roman Catholic Church ruled that the beaver was a fish (beaver flesh was a part of the indigenous peoples' diet, prior to the Europeans' arrival) for purposes of dietary law. Therefore, the general prohibition on the consumption of meat on Fridays during Lent did not apply to beaver meat.
The legal basis for the decision probably rests with the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, which bases animal classification as much on habit as anatomy. This is similar to the Church's classification of the capybara, another semi-aquatic rodent.
The demand for beaver pelts in Europe ultimately drove the animal to near-extinction. Its popularity contributed to the dwindling of the population of the animal in the New World and fuelled colonial expansion as more people sought the fortunes of the trade.
In 1624 (the year New York was first settled) Dutch settlers were recorded having shipped 1,500 beaver and 500 otter skins to Europe.
Used winter coats worn by Native Americans were a prized commodity for hat making because their wear helped prepare the skins; separating out the coarser hairs from the pelts.
The Hudson's Bay Company, which was founded in the early 17th century and is still in existence, made its fortune through this trade.
To make felt, the underhairs were shaved from the beaver pelt and mixed with a vibrating hatter's bow. The matted fabric was pummeled and boiled repeatedly, resulting in a shrunken and thickened felt. Filled over a hat-form block, the felt was pressed and steamed into shape. The hat maker then brushed the outside surface to a sheen. Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/beav…
.jpg)
A silk reproduction felt hat, Lower Fort Garry NHS.
Shapes and styles of beaver hat 1776–1825
19th century Masonic Knights Templar Beaver Fur hat
English military engineer John By (1779-1836)
Edward Arthur Walton – The Beaver Hat
Media related to Beaver hats at Wikimedia Commons
10 Annotations
First Reading
Phil • Link
L&M's glossary says "Beaver, fur hat."
Louis • Link
On the same page, 570, of the L&M Companion's Large Glossary, we have
BEVER: ii.127, beaver, fur hat
and
BEAVER: ii.203, hat made of beaver's fur or of an imitation of it: 1528
(apparently the earliest OED usage of it in that sense)
language hat • Link
Nope, there's a considerably older citation:
1528 ROY Sat., To exalte the thre folde crowne Of anti-christ hys bever.
JWB • Link
"The initial stage in the hat making process would be the plucking of the coarse guard hairs from the beaver pelt, which was then brushed, with a solution of nitrate of mercury.
This would raise the scales on the fur shafts so that they would become firmly locked together. This process became known as "carotting" and if carried out in a poorly ventilated room, the mercury fumes could damage the brain, hence the expression "mad as a hatter". The fibres would then be cut from the skin and placed on a bench in a workroom known as the "hurdle". Over the bench would be suspended a hatter's bow, very much like an oversized violin bow and the fibres responded to the vibrations of the bow which was controlled by the craftsmen, separating themselves and becoming evenly distributed until they had formed into a thick but loosely structured mat of material known as the "batt". Several batts would then be shaped into a cone and reduced in size by boiling and then rolled to create a firm dense felt. The hood would then be sent onto the hatter who would mould it to the required shape and then line and finish it."
http://www.thehatsite.com/felt.ht…
Carolyn • Link
Beaver hats were any hat made of felted beaver fur; they were quite expensive and began to be manufactured in England during the Elizabethan period. The demand for Beaver fur to make felted hats (which looked like a gentleman's silk top hat) was great enough to spur on the American Fur trade (roughly 1620-1850).
Second Reading
Bill • Link
There is further discussion of beaver hats on 29 October 1661: http://www.pepysdiary.com/diary/1…
Terry Foreman • Link
1600–50 in Western European fashion - Wikipedia
Wikipedia250 × 309Search by image
Frans Hals' Laughing Cavalier (in the Wallace Collection) wears a slashed doublet, wide reticella lace collar and cuffs, and a broadbrimmed hat, 1624.
https://www.google.com/search?q=1…:
Third Reading
San Diego Sarah • Link
Hats, like other forms of dress, played a large role in reflecting one’s social identity. The shape and style of one’s hat indicated to a passerby one’s profession, wealth, and social rank and position. Color, shape, and material all carried specific meaning.
In Ecclesiastical heraldry, for example, a red, wide-brimmed hat indicated that its wearer was a cardinal, and interactions required a specific social protocol.
In 17th century England, the shape and style of one’s hat reflected political and religious affiliation. Due to the expense of a beaver hat, being able to purchase one made a visual statement about one’s wealth and social status.
https://humwp.ucsc.edu/cwh/feinst…
Felt is made by applying heat and pressure to a collection of fibers, and beaver fur is particularly suited for felting because of the way the strands of fur stick together. It was much harder to make felt by hand when the guard hairs were plucked from the pelt by hand, then mercury was brushed over the pelt to roughen the fiber and help each hair to stick to the next. The pelt was dried and then shaved.
The resulting fluff was mixed and then carded. Carding is a process of raking to get all the fibers running in the same direction. Next, the hatter weighed out the quantity of fluff he needed for a particular style of hat.
The fluff then went through a process called bowing to begin the process of sticking all the fibres together. The object was to create two large oval sheets about 4 ft long, 3 ft wide and 6 to 12 inches high, called batts. Now the hatter used heat, pressure (from his hands), and moisture to compress this batt. The process released mercury, which the hatter absorbed.
Over time, hatters developed mercury poisoning, which is where we get the phrase 'mad as a hatter'. At the end of this process, the two batts have been put back together into a large cone.
Then comes planking -– dipping the cone into a hot solution of diluted sulfuric acid, beer-grounds and wine sediments, then working it by hand on planks around the kettle and doing it all over again until the felt was half its size.
After that came blocking, dying, stiffening, brushing, and lining, until the hat was ready for the market. The shape of hats changed according to fashion.
The process remains much the same today, except without the mercury poisoning and with machines doing the work
https://judeknightauthor.com/2021…
San Diego Sarah • Link
King Charles I had a hat for every day -- one was so large it was made from 12 beavers.
Found throughout most of the United States and Canada, the beaver (Castor canadensis) is the largest rodent in North America. From 30 to 40 inches long and weighing as much as 60 lbs., the beaver is unique among rodents in possessing webbed rear feet and a broad, flat tail.
Historically, it was eaten as a delicacy by many Native American tribes, a custom adopted by colonial Americans and early frontier residents.
Water and wood dependent, the beaver is herbaceous, preferring the bark of deciduous trees along with a variety of aquatic plants and grasses. Its propagation is guaranteed by pond-building activity associated with damming of streams in the process of creating lodges.
Once described by naturalist Enos A. Mills as "the original conservationist," beaver-engineered dams and diversion ponds serve to prevent floods and loss of surface soils during spring thaws and summer rainstorms.
Since the 16th century, the beaver has been the target of Indians and European immigrants alike for its luxurious pelt. Also, its underwool — prized for its suppleness and water resistance — has been commercially valuable in the felting industry for the making of hats.
The earliest European efforts to settle colonies along the St. Lawrence River and in New England were funded by a beaver trade that soon spread into the interior of North America, generating intense intertribal and international rivalries among competing groups.
French, English, Dutch, Swedish, Russian, and Spanish fur trading companies were organized to tap the wealth that beaver skins afforded on the European fur market based in London and Leipzig.
Two types of pelts were sought. One was coat beaver, or castor gras — pelts that had been worn by Indians for at least one winter, so that the outer or "guard" hairs were loosened for easier processing by felters. The other was parchment beaver or castor sec — those pelts trapped, skinned, and flattened for easy storage and shipment in bales.
In 1638, King Charles decreed that all fur hats manufactured in England be made of North American beaver, fueling a series of beaver wars between the Iroquois and their English allies and the French and their Indian allies.
Towns such as Albany (1624) and Montreal (1642) were established as fur trade entrepôts, servicing large hinterlands.
The French dominated the fur trade until 1763, with beaver replacing cod as New France's primary staple export. After the fall of New France, the fur industry was dominated by the London-based Hudson's Bay Company, chartered in 1670 with the exclusive right to trade and trap the lands that drain into Hudson Bay.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/beav…
San Diego Sarah • Link
The most valuable part of the beaver is its inner fur whose many minute barbs make it excellent for felting, especially for hats. In Canada a 'made beaver' or castor gras that an Indian had worn or slept on was more valuable than a fresh skin since this tended to wear off the outer guard hairs.
Beaver pelts were used for barter by Native Americans in the 17th century to gain European goods. They were then shipped back to Great Britain and France where they were made into clothing items. Widespread hunting and trapping of beavers led to their endangerment. Eventually, the fur trade declined due to decreasing demand in Europe and the takeover of trapping grounds to support the growing agriculture sector.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/beav…
In the 17th century, based on a question raised by the Bishop of Quebec, the Roman Catholic Church ruled that the beaver was a fish (beaver flesh was a part of the indigenous peoples' diet, prior to the Europeans' arrival) for purposes of dietary law. Therefore, the general prohibition on the consumption of meat on Fridays during Lent did not apply to beaver meat.
The legal basis for the decision probably rests with the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, which bases animal classification as much on habit as anatomy.
This is similar to the Church's classification of the capybara, another semi-aquatic rodent.
The demand for beaver pelts in Europe ultimately drove the animal to near-extinction. Its popularity contributed to the dwindling of the population of the animal in the New World and fuelled colonial expansion as more people sought the fortunes of the trade.
In 1624 (the year New York was first settled) Dutch settlers were recorded having shipped 1,500 beaver and 500 otter skins to Europe.
Used winter coats worn by Native Americans were a prized commodity for hat making because their wear helped prepare the skins; separating out the coarser hairs from the pelts.
The Hudson's Bay Company, which was founded in the early 17th century and is still in existence, made its fortune through this trade.
To make felt, the underhairs were shaved from the beaver pelt and mixed with a vibrating hatter's bow. The matted fabric was pummeled and boiled repeatedly, resulting in a shrunken and thickened felt. Filled over a hat-form block, the felt was pressed and steamed into shape. The hat maker then brushed the outside surface to a sheen.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/beav…