Man’s Top Hat Peck and Company (United States, Massachusetts, Boston, active 19th century). Circa 1832. United States, Massachusetts, Boston. Beaver fur. | LACMA
Headdress circa 1920. Thailand (possibly Cambodia). Glass, Gilt Lacquer & Silver Dancer’s Headdress for Sita.
Dance dramas such as Thai versions of the Rama epic featuring Hanuman, king or the monkeys, Rama, and Sita, were very popular in the Kingdom of Siam in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Headdresses such as this particularly fine example were made for the dancer who played the key role of Sita. As heroine of the epic, she, like Rama, were attired regally with ornate costumes and spectacular crown-like headdresses. Lower ranking females such as princesses wore diadems rather than full crowns with tiered spires.
This headdress comprises gilded lacquer, black lacquer, wood, rawhide, faceted glass spangles, and silver. The glass spangles are mounted in a jour silver settings, in complex bands of silver wire, and with many mounted in flower-like settings en tremble on wire stems so that the spangles shimmied and moved in a frenetic and over-exaggerated fashion with any minor movement made by the dancer. The silver settings are particularly fine.
The crown incorporates a diadem with gilded rawhide flanges or wings that frame the dancer’s face on either side and which are embellished with fine wire netting inset with dozens of silver-mounted glass spangles.
Before the dancers performed, it was traditional for them to place their headdresses, diadems, masks and musical instruments on an altar along with offerings to respected teachers and spirits. After the ceremony, the headdresses were put on and a small, single fresh flower was tucked behind the ear (McGill, 2009, p. 108). | Michael Backman
Embroidered Linen Forehead Cloth English, ca. 1610.
Triangular in shape and lavishly embellished, a forehead cloth—also called a cross-cloth or crosset—was a feminine accessory sometimes worn with a coif, an informal type of cap. Rare after the mid-seventeenth century, forehead cloths first appeared in conjunction with the coif around 1580; embroidered with patterns to match, they were worn around the forehead and draped over the coif with the point facing backwards. Though the occasions on which a lady might wear a forehead cloth are not fully known, it seems that they were used for bedside receptions and in times of sickness. In his 1617 travels through Ireland, English author Fynes Moryson observed that, “Many weare such crosse-clothes or forehead clothes as our women use when they are sicke.”| Cora Ginsburg
Horned helmet Iron Age, 150-50 BC. From the River Thames at Waterloo Bridge, London, England. A helmet for a god? This 'helmet' was dredged from the River Thames at Waterloo Bridge in the early 1860s. It is the only Iron Age helmet to have ever been found in southern England, and it is the only Iron Age helmet with horns ever to have been found anywhere in Europe. Horns were often a symbol of the gods in different parts of the ancient world. This might suggest the person who wore this was a special person, or that the helmet was made for a god to wear. Like the Deal Crown, this was more of a symbolic head-dress than actual protection for the head in battle. The person who wore the helmet would need a modern hat size of 7. The helmet is made from sheet bronze pieces held together with many carefully placed bronze rivets. It is decorated with the style of La Tène art used in Britain between 250 and 50 BC. The repoussé decoration is repeated on the back and the front. Originally, the bronze helmet would have been a shining polished bronze colour, not the dull green colour it is today. It was also once decorated with studs of bright red glass. The decoration is similar to that on the Snettisham Great Torc. | ↳ The British Museum
Woman’s Doll Hat Gilbert Adrian (United States, 1903-1959), United States, California, circa 1947. Wool felt, grosgrain ribbon, silk net. | ↳ LACMA
Lady's Hat With Hat Pin Circa 1770, Unknown Maker, Silk velvet, ostrich plume, cut steel. Mint Museum
Aquamarine & Diamond Aigrette Tiara, Cartier. 1912. Centring on a cushion-shaped aquamarine within an arched surround of interlaced open work scrolls millegrain set with circular- and rose-cut diamonds, surmounted by a pear-shaped aquamarine, signed Cartier Paris, Londres, New York. | Sotheby's
Man's Bicorn Silk Hat. Possibly made in Great Britain or France, ca. 1800 Man's bicorn hat in black silk trimmed with a silk button, black silk braid and a pleated silk cockade. High and semi-circular with one brim wider than the other. Trimmed with a loop of plaited silk braid stitched around a black silk covered button and over a stitched black grosgrain bow with van dyked edges. Lined with black silk. | V&A
Hat Sally Victor (American, 1905–1977), Date: 1935 Culture: American Medium: straw, linen, silk. | THE MET