#2555 $750 Sold
Gainsborough style wide brim straw hat, c.1900
It is a special treat to find an all original, antique wide brim hat. Usually these hats been refurbished in an over-done theatrical interpretation of the period. This superb hat is one of the best I have found, perfect for the collector who wants to wear her treasures.
Wide brim hats, also called Gainsboroughs, have remained popular over the centuries. The romantic appeal of the wide brim, which attractively frames the face of the wearer, makes the wide brim hat a perennial favorite with collectors.
The hat is fashioned from natural colored straw. The upturned brim and crown are bordered with wide black velvet ribbon. The crown is lined with black velvet. A charming bouquet of silk ribbon flowers with autumn colored leaves cascades over the peach ostrich plume on the crown.
In life and literature, a wide brimmed hat like our Gainsborough was often seen perched on the head of the romantic heroine. In Fitzgerald's The Beautiful and the Damned, Anthony Patch has a day's leave from an Army training camp. He finds himself trailing behind two pretty girls heading home at dusk in a sleepy Southern town. A girl in a lilac dress and wearing a Gainsborough is walking ahead of him with her friend.
Several times she turned and looked at him with cheerful laughter in large eyes that seemed the same color as her lilac frock. He soon came up to the pair, who were dissolved in laughter now, a soft, low rippling laughter. Her eyes were soft as shadows. Were they violet, or was it their blue darkness mingling with the gray hues of dusk? Her voice seemed as much a part of the night as the drowsy breeze stirring the wide brim of her hat.
Wear this beauty to Ascot; wear it for a wedding; or wear it just for fun! In the 21st century, this is a two-season hat, spring and fall. In 1900, however, hats were so important in a fashionable woman's ensemble that they were worn even in her own home. Will you be the one to revive that amusing custom?
The condition is excellent.
The inner crown circumference is 22 1/2". The brim measures 18" across.
