OK...Hats now

[Matusalem]

I Have compiled a dozen or so list of reenactor clothing suppliers and sutlers, and they all have tricorn hats, except I can't find anything earlier than 1750 and later than 1660.

After doing me homework, I have concluded that 1700-1725 tricorns seem like they are much bigger in loft, and a bit more upright than 1750s-Rev War counterparts. In fact, I went out of my way to install cable television last year just to get the Discovery Channel (or was it the History channel) docu on Blackbeard, andI saw that a few of the reenactor characters had some unusually vertical looking tricorn hats. I have to do it right before I go to GAOP...the hat is very important to me. I'm not looking for French court royalty stuff with maribou feathers al la Louis Quatorze (the 14th), just something a bit more rapscallion and ruffian, and not so much Barbossa or Musketeers....just a bad-ass seaman with authority. Any advice?...cause I got the credit card ready.

[capnwilliam]

I Have compiled a dozen or so list of reenactor clothing suppliers and sutlers, and they all have tricorn hats, except I can't find anything earlier than 1750 and later than 1660.

After doing me homework, I have concluded that 1700-1725 tricorns seem like they are much bigger in loft, and a bit more upright than 1750s-Rev War counterparts. In fact, I went out of my way to install cable television last year just to get the Discovery Channel (or was it the History channel) docu on Blackbeard, andI saw that a few of the reenactor characters had some unusually vertical looking tricorn hats. I have to do it right before I go to GAOP...the hat is very important to me. I'm not looking for French court royalty stuff with maribou feathers al la Louis Quatorze (the 14th), just something a bit more rapscallion and ruffian, and not so much Barbossa or Musketeers....just a bad-ass seaman with authority. Any advice?...cause I got the credit card ready.

One bit of advice would be to take with the proverbial grain of sea salt, anything ye see on the History Channel. I've seen Sir Henry Morgan's buccaneers in the1600's armed with percussion muskets from the 1800's.

Also, Thomas Jefferson sporting a goatee.

For documentation, you can rely only on primary, period sources: period drawings or paintings or narratives; or on secondary sources that rely directly on them. (And sometimes, even these things represent artistic license, faulty memory, etc.)

Capt. William