Museum Notebook: Whanganui Regional Museum collection has a top hat that belonged to mayor Arthur Bignell

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Mayor Arthur Bignell's top hat and case, made by Tress & Co, London, early 20th century.

In the Whanganui Regional Museum collection is a top hat in its own hand-stitched leather case.

The hat belonged to Arthur Bignell, mayor of Whanganui from 1904 to 1906, and was worn by him on formal occasions in this role.

The hat is made of silk plush, a shiny napped silk fabric, and has a black silk grosgrain hatband ribbon. A leather band inside has an adjuster and a ribbon that can be altered to achieve a good fit. The inside is lined with a thin layer of cork.

The hand-stitched leather case has two removable red velvet-covered sections to protect the hat and a carrying handle. A leather strap across the top fastens on both sides with buckles. A wider strap fastens the lid to the box at the back and is secured with a brass lock.

The hat was made by the Tress & Co hat factory, established in 1846 in Southwark, London. A prosperous and prestigious company, it was awarded prize medals in Paris in 1855 and 1867, London in 1862, Philadelphia in 1876 and Sydney in 1879.

Top hats were originally made of felted beaver fur which held its shape when wet. The beaver fur top hat became synonymous with the upper classes who could afford to pay 40 shillings per hat, the hatter only earning around two shillings and tuppence a day.

Expensive and increasingly scarce beaver fur began to be replaced by ‘hatters plush’. The first silk top hat in England in 1793, is credited to George Dunnage, a hatter from Middlesex. Thirty years later it was being worn by all social classes including workmen, policemen, and postmen.

Mercury was used to stiffen the hat fabric, which led to mercury poisoning. Symptoms included early-onset dementia, muscular spasms, and tremors, loss of hearing, eyesight, teeth and nails, and death.

The mercury-poisoned hatter was immortalised in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Lewis Carroll’s Mad Hatter is always illustrated dressed in a top hat.

Making a silk plush top hat takes months. A layer of linen is coated in shellac to form gossamer and is left to cure for five months on a wooden hat block. It is then repeatedly recoated, with drying times between coats. The top and sides of the silk plush are sewn together, eased over the block, and ironed to adhere the fabric to the gossamer. The brim and a hat band are then attached and an inner leather sweatband is installed and hand-stitched inside.

Top hats became a sign of respectability when HRH Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, started wearing them in 1850. By the end of World War II, top hats were rare, although they continued to be worn in certain professions, particularly in Britain, such as banking and stockbroking.

Boys at some public schools, such as Eton, also wore them. Men in the British royal family wear top hats to state occasions as an alternative to military uniforms. Top hats are also worn at some horse racing meetings, notably The Derby and Royal Ascot, and are occasionally worn at weddings in Britain. The art of top hat making is, however, dying out; only a handful of hatters still ply their trade.

In popular culture, the top hat is often comic or ridiculous and worn by characters such as Willy Wonka, stage magicians, steampunk cosplayers, the Fat Controller, and Slash from Guns n’ Roses.

■ Kathy Greensides is a Kaiāwhina-Collection Assistant at Whanganui Regional Museum.

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