Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1 (1620-1820)Earle, Alice Morse
History
Two Centuries of Costume in America, Volume 1 (1620-1820)
Earle, Alice Morse
Clothing and dress -- United States -- History
The hat was worn much more constantly within-doors than in the present
day. Pepys states that they were worn in church; even the preacher wore
his hat. Hats were removed in the presence of royalty. An hereditary
honor and privilege granted to one of my ancestors was that he might
wear his hat before the king.
It is somewhat difficult to find out the exact date when the wearing of
hats by men within-doors ceased to be fashionable and became distinctly
low bred. We can turn to contemporary art. In 1707 at a grand banquet
given in France to the Spanish Embassy, a ceremonious state affair with
the women in magnificent full-dress, the men seated at the table and in
the presence of royalty wore their cocked hats—so much for courtly
France.
This wearing of the hat in church, at table, and elsewhere that seems
now strange to us, was largely as an emblem of dignity and authority.
Miss Moore in the _Caldwell Papers_ writes of her grandfather:—
“I’ my grandfather’s time, as I have heard him tell, ilka maister of a
family had his ain seat in his ain house; aye, and sat there with his
hat on, afore the best in the land; and had his ain dish, and was aye
helpit first and keepit up his authority as a man should so. Parents
were parents then; and bairns dared not set up their gabs afore them as
they do now.”
That the covering of the head in church still has a significance on
important occasions, is shown by a rubric from the “Form and Order” for
the Coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra; this provides
that the king remains uncovered during the saying of the Litany and the
beginning of the Communion Service, but when the sermon begun that he
should put on his “Cap of crimson velvet turned up with Ermine, and so
continue,” to the end of the discourse.
Hatbands were just as important for men’s hats as women’s—especially
during the years of the reign of James I. Endymion Porter had his
wife’s diamond necklace to wear on his hat in Spain. It probably looked
like paste beside the gorgeousness of the Duke of Buckingham, who had
“the Mirror of France,” a great diamond, the finest in England, “to
wear alone in your hat with a little blacke feather,” so the king wrote
him. A more curious hat ornament was a glove.
Hat with a Glove as a Favor. Hat with a Glove as a Favor.
This handsome hat is from a portrait of George, Earl of Cumberland. It
has a woman’s glove as a favor. This is said to have been a gift of
Queen Elizabeth after his prowess in a tournament. He always wore this
glove on state occasions. Gloves were worn on a hat in three meanings:
as a memorial of a dead friend, as a favor of a mistress, or as a mark
of challenge. A pretty laced or tasselled handkerchief was also a favor
and was worn like a cockade.
An excellent representation of the Cavalier hat may be seen on the
figure of Oliver Cromwell (here), which shows him dismissing
Parliament. Cornelius Steinwyck’s flat-leafed hat has no feather.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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