Gentlemen's Hat Boxes

[Captain Jim]

Perusing the 18th Century Material Culture's Facebook page ( https://www.facebook.com/18thCenturyMaterialCultureResourceCenter ) I came across these little gems. Wooden tricorn hat boxes. Who knew?

[William Brand]

I want at least two.

[Mission]

Imagine the hat box for the Patrick Hand Original™ Planter's hat...

[Grymm]

Sandby The Band Box Seller with boxes for tricorns and flat round ones for ladies bergere/straws.

Edited February 26, 2013 by Grymm

[Captain Jim]

Imagine the hat box for the Patrick Hand Original Planter's hat...

I could make you one that stored the hat upside down and fill the free space under the brim with storage compartments. Stol be monstrous though.

[Mission]

Then I couldn't worry over it during plane trips. (Or get comments from the hoi polloi during said plane trips.)

[Captain Jim]

Yes, but just think of all of the attention you'll get from the police by carrying a box that looks like it houses a giant doughnut!

[jendobyns]

Wow, you really were deep into that FB page! Yep, these have been around for a while. I've seen repros at some historic sites, a friend had one, and iirc there was someone making them in the DC area some years ago (Henderson and Vinci, maybe?). Nice way to protect your hat while traveling. I highly recommend using hat boxes, especially after my guys managed to skewer a brand new straw hat of mine with a bayonet. And it wasn't even close to where the guns were stored!

[landlubbersanonymous]

Aye... The perfect accessory to protect one's faux distressed hat from the elements. ; )

[Captain Jim]

Well I may just add these to my bag of tricks when my web site goes live. While I have seen some offered for sale, the quality is not what I would want. So, perhaps, there is a market. I especially like the one with the flat front and key lock, but offering more than one grade might be a good idea.

[Jas. Hook]

 

Well I may just add these to my bag of tricks when my web site goes live. While I have seen some offered for sale, the quality is not what I would want. So, perhaps, there is a market. I especially like the one with the flat front and key lock, but offering more than one grade might be a good idea.

 

Hummmmm... in a pecan stained pine. ;-)

[Mission]

I was just thinking what landlubbersanonymous said in a reverse sort of way - sticking the Patrick Hand Original™ in the overhead compartment gives it character. (And gives me worry lines when someone approaches my seat with one of those amazon wheeled monstrosities that can't possibly fit up there - which gives me character.)

[jendobyns]

Check this one out, leather.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=4292953403648&set=pcb.4292960323821&type=1&theater

Also, the bottom example of the first set of hat boxes on this thread looks like leather bound pine, the pine covered with paper at one point. Not stained, b/c the point of using a cheap wood back then was that it was cheap, but you could paint it and make it look like expensive wood, or cover it with something nice.

Another option is the same material used for round hat boxes now, a fairly stiff un-corrugated cardboard. Again covered with paper (like a marbled paper). Fairly light and will take the bumps and dings instead of your hat. Not sure if there are any extant examples out there made that way, though.

Grymm have you seen any of these made out of cardboard (chip?) in the UK?

[Captain Jim]

That Facebook link isn't working for me. Either I'm doing something wrong or computers really hate you.

[jendobyns]

Ah, well, it's probably my computer kharma. Back in the day when I worked in offices, the programmers had a love/hate relationship with me. Because I was the one for whom all the bugs would come out to play.

[jendobyns]

Let's try this again:

[jendobyns]

That Facebook link isn't working for me. Either I'm doing something wrong or computers really hate you.

Funny, the first one worked for me! Oh my! We must have gremlins on board! Either that or I'm only allowed to see them because of the way he has his settings?

If the second attempt didn't work, I can send a pic directly to you of that, too.

[Mission]

I fixed it for you.

Jen you HAVE to use the little picture icon, you can't just post a link. It looks like a polaroid just above the editing window. It has blue/grene/orange in it. If you don't use that the forum just posts a hot link.

[jendobyns]

I fixed it for you.

Jen you HAVE to use the little picture icon, you can't just post a link. It looks like a polaroid just above the editing window. It has blue/grene/orange in it. If you don't use that the forum just posts a hot link.

Thanks Mission, but I did try using that. And why would the link work when I click on it from my post and not for other users? Did it not work for you?

Is there a step by step instructional somewhere for this? Because it is not intuitive and I'm having a blasted horrible time figuring it out by just following the steps. I tried the image icon, the link icon and have really run out of patience.

[Mission]

Stynky asked me to write a tutorial for everything on the site once, but I have a day job and he doesn't pay me to do this so I ignored him. (You have to do this with graphics, which is a pain in the arse. Plus he keep upgrading the software so that the process changes ever so slightly, so *pfft!* to him.)

I know I have written the tutorial for posting pic over and over again in posts, though.

1) Reply to a topic and the reply box appears labeled 'Reply to this topic'.

2) Open the image in a new window or tab. (By itself. Not the web page it's on, only the image. Based on the URL in your post, you had this correct.)

3) Copy the URL from the browser window with the image in it.

4) Go back to the tab or window with the reply to the topic in it.

4) Click on the little Polaroid above the edit window. It's the 11th thing right above the window and it contains a blue/green/orange blob in it.

5) A new box will appear with a blue banner on top that says 'Image Properties' and a box with your cursor in it which is labeled 'URL.'

6) Paste the URL you copied in step 3 into that.

7) Click 'OK' in the new box with the blue banner.

That's all there is to it. If the box with the blue banner isn't appearing, you may have to allow pop-ups in your browser for this website or something like that. (Although I don't think this would qualify as a pop-up window. I'm not certain this is true for every browser, however.)

[Grymm]

Seed historic examples of hat boxes (!7th through early Victorian) made from wood (both planked types and lathes/bands like a Shaker box), leather, tinplate(Japanned or laquered usually), pasteboard and paper mache. The mache and pasteboard ones were covered in what looked to be wallpaper and 'lined' with old newspaper(glued on like the wallpaper)

I'm trying to source some papermache ones at the moment for The Mem Sahibs hat business (www.kittyhats.co.uk) in between prepping clothes, recipes and equiptment for the upcoming cooking events at Kew Palace ... 1789 is about 30yrs out of my comfort zone.

[jendobyns]

Stynky asked me to write a tutorial for everything on the site once, but I have a day job and he doesn't pay me to do this so I ignored him. (You have to do this with graphics, which is a pain in the arse. Plus he keep upgrading the software so that the process changes ever so slightly, so *pfft!* to him.)

I know I have written the tutorial for posting pic over and over again in posts, though.

1) Reply to a topic and the reply box appears labeled 'Reply to this topic'.

2) Open the image in a new window or tab. (By itself. Not the web page it's on, only the image. Based on the URL in your post, you had this correct.)

3) Copy the URL from the browser window with the image in it.

4) Go back to the tab or window with the reply to the topic in it.

4) Click on the little Polaroid above the edit window. It's the 11th thing right above the window and it contains a blue/green/orange blob in it.

5) A new box will appear with a blue banner on top that says 'Image Properties' and a box with your cursor in it which is labeled 'URL.'

6) Paste the URL you copied in step 3 into that.

7) Click 'OK' in the new box with the blue banner.

That's all there is to it. If the box with the blue banner isn't appearing, you may have to allow pop-ups in your browser for this website or something like that. (Although I don't think this would qualify as a pop-up window. I'm not certain this is true for every browser, however.)

Well fooey, that looks like exactly what I did. Hmmm. Ok, saving this to another location for later use. And thumping my head on the keyboard in frustration.

[Dutchman]

is anyone interested in procuring some of these? We have TONS of scraps from Lunas construction that would be perfect for this. We can do custom boxes out of a couple choices of soft woods. (we can do hard, but they would cost a bundle to ship) The cost of boxes would be a donation to construction. Any thoughts?

[Jas. Hook]

Dutch -

Sounds like an interesting idea to spinoff the scrap wood. Sort of like Rumpelstiltskin spin straw into gold. ;-)

[jendobyns]

is anyone interested in procuring some of these? We have TONS of scraps from Lunas construction that would be perfect for this. We can do custom boxes out of a couple choices of soft woods. (we can do hard, but they would cost a bundle to ship) The cost of boxes would be a donation to construction. Any thoughts?

Where's the "like" button?

Sounds like a great way to turn scrap into profit for the project. I might be able to use a couple, depending on price point. We have more than one tricorn wearing lad in our house.