BLOCKING MACHINE
“CARRE VIVE BROCHIER”
Inventors and Makers of other special adjusting, dressing and pressing machines and accessories for the manufacture of STRAW BOATERS of perfect and correct shape
SOCIÉTÉ ANONYME DES ETABLISSEMENTS
J. B. BROCHIER, 8 Rue de la Viabert, LYON
COMFORT IN HATS
Amongst the allied trades associated with the Straw Hat Industry must be included the production of the Pneumatic or Easy-Fitting Sweats or Leathers, which during the last 25 years have been the chief means of establishing the Straw Boater as the most popular Summer Head-wear.
THE HAT MANUFACTURERS’ SUPPLY CO., LTD., of Stockport, England, make claim to be the producers of the best of these kind, and many of their patent productions have a place in the History of the Straw Hat Industry; the following have stood out prominently: “IVY” and “MARVEL,” but apparently the zenith was reached with the production of the World-famed--
=Patent=
“BON-TON IVY”
This patent Comfort Leather is acknowledged as the “LANDMARK” in Head-comfort for any Hat. And considerably over twenty millions have been sold for Straw Hats alone, which fact must undoubtedly prove that this Leather has been greatly instrumental in aiding the progress of the Straw Boater; so much so, that the Patentees have appointed manufacturing agents in various parts of the World to cope with the increasing demand.
The latest production in these Easy-fitting Leathers is the--
(=Patent=) “NEW BON-TON IVY” (introduced 1921) which is suitable for any kind of hats and, like its well-known parent patent, guarantees Perfect Fit, Comfort, and Ventilation.
It is worth bearing in mind that all genuine “Bon-Ton Ivy” leathers have adjustable Elastic Fitting, also see name Stamp on the leather.
Patentees and Sole Manufacturers, at the
HEADQUARTERS FOR HATTERS’ SPECIALITIES.
Gold Printers, etc.
THE
HAT MANUFACTURERS SUPPLY Co., Ltd.
PRETORIA WORKS, STOCKPORT, ENGLAND
Samples on Application.
Téléphone:
No. 829
Télégrammes:
BURGISSER, FLORENCE
* * * * *
Soc. An. Burgisser
* * * * *
ITALIAN
Milans and Fancy Braids
Men’s and Ladies’ Leghorns
Fancy Bodies Novelties
BLEACHING and DYEING
FLORENCE
VIA MASACCIO 149
SOLE REPRESENTATIVES--
E. T. RABAN & SONS
3-6 Australian Avenue, London, E.C.1
ESTABLISHED OVER 100 YEARS
Benjamin Bennett
LTD.
Manufacturers of
Ladies’ and Children’s Hats,
Trimmed and Untrimmed--Velours,
Felts, Straws, and Fancies,
also all kinds of Strawboard and
Leatherboard Boxes
* * * * *
Factories:
Connaught House, Upper George
Street, Luton
17 & 22 High Street, Dunstable
Showrooms & Offices:
61 George Street, Luton
Telegrams: Beebee Luton Telephones: Luton 921 (2 lines); Dunstable 3
H. GODFREY & CO.
ENGINEERS TO THE HAT TRADE
Makers of the Keston Blocking Machines
14a STUART STREET, LUTON
The London Varnish
and Enamel Co., Ltd.
Successors to Conrad Wm. Schmidt (F. A. Glaeser), Ltd.
City Works
Carpenters Road, Stratford
London, E.15, England
THE ORIGINAL AND LARGEST
----MANUFACTURERS OF----
STRAW HAT POLISHES
IN ALL COLOURS
LUTON
TRADE MARK
BRAND
These Spirit Hat Polishes were introduced
in 1878 and have been extensively used ever
since in Luton, London, and all Hat
Making Centres throughout
----the World----
_A.B.C. CODE 4th and 5th EDITION USED
CABLE ADDRESS: “LOVARNAMEL, LONDON”_
H. Spratley
(Late H. SPRATLEY & SON)
16, 18 & 20 Barber’s Lane, Luton
The Oldest Established Firm in the Trade
for the making of
Ladies’, Gent’s,
and
Children’s Shapes
for
Straws and Felts
in
Wood, Plaster, Iron, Spelter and
Aluminium Pans and Dishes.
All Accessories for the Trade
_The Noted Blockmaker for High-Class
Work_
Tel. 778
ESTABLISHED 1866
Colling & Company
PROPRIETOR: CHAS F. COLLING
_Plain and Fancy
Silk, Satin and
Cotton Goods_
* * * * *
_Manufacturers of
all kinds of
Hat Linings_
39 King Street, Luton
TELEGRAMS: “COLLING, KING ST., LUTON”
TELEPHONE: LUTON 17
PITMAN’S
COMMON COMMODITIES
AND INDUSTRIES SERIES
Each book in crown 8vo, illustrated, 3/- net
=TEA.= By A. Ibbetson
=COFFEE.= By B. B. Keable
=SUGAR.= By Geo. Martineau
=OILS.= By C. Ainsworth Mitchell
=WHEAT.= By Andrew Millar
=RUBBER.= By C. Beadle and H. P. Stevens
=IRON AND STEEL.= By C. Hood
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=COAL.= By F. H. Wilson
=TIMBER.= By W. Bullock
=COTTON.= By R. J. Peake
=SILK.= By Luther Hooper
=WOOL.= By J. A. Hunter
=LINEN.= By Alfred S. Moore
=TOBACCO.= By A. E. Tanner
=LEATHER.= By K. J. Adcock
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=ICE AND COLD STORAGE.= By B. H. Springett
=GLOVES.= By B. E. Ellis
=JUTE.= By T. Woodhouse and P. Kilgour
=DRUGS IN COMMERCE.= By J. Humphrey
=THE FILM INDUSTRY.= By Davidson Boughey
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=TEXTILE BLEACHING.= By Alec B. Steven
=WINE.= By Andre L. Simon
=IRONFOUNDING.= By B. Whiteley
=COTTON SPINNING.= By A. S. Wade
=ALCOHOL.= By C. Simmonds
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=SPONGES.= By E. J. J. Cresswell
=WALL PAPER.= By G. Whiteley Ward
=CLOCKS AND WATCHES.= By G. L. Overton
=ANTHRACITE.= By A. L. Summers
=INCANDESCENT LIGHTING.= By S. I. Levy
=THE FISHING INDUSTRY.= By W. E. Gibbs
=OIL FOR POWER PURPOSES.= By S. H. North
=STARCH.= By H. A. Auden
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=PLAYER PIANO.= By D. M. Wilson
=INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES.= By J. Okill
=DYES.= By A. J. Hall
=MOTOR BOATS.= By F. Strickland
=VELVET.= By J. H. Cooke
=THE STRAW HAT INDUSTRY.= By H. Inwards
=BRUSHES.= By W. Kiddier
=PATENT FUELS.= By J. A. Greene and F. Mollwo Perkin
=FURS.= By J. C. Sachs
=STRAW HATS=
Always leading for Style and Quality
Frank Harden, Ltd.
Manufacturers of
LADIES’ HATS
of all descriptions
WHOLESALE AND SHIPPING ONLY
58-62 Bute Street
Luton
Model as worn 25-30 years ago MANUFACTURED BY FRANK HARDEN
[Illustrated: Model as worn 1922 season
MANUFACTURED BY
FRANK HARDEN, LTD.]
Telegrams: Harden, Luton
Codes: Marconi and A.B.C. 5th edition
FINISHING, LINING AND TRIMMING STRAW HATS Frontispiece
PITMAN’S COMMON COMMODITIES
AND INDUSTRIES
STRAW HATS
THEIR HISTORY
AND MANUFACTURE
BY
HARRY INWARDS
EX-PRESIDENT LUTON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
LONDON
SIR ISAAC PITMAN & SONS, LTD.
PARKER STREET, KINGSWAY, W.C.2
BATH, MELBOURNE, TORONTO, NEW YORK
PRINTED IN BATH, ENGLAND
BY SIR ISAAC PITMAN AND SONS, LTD.
TO
MY WIFE
EMILY INWARDS
A
LOVING TRIBUTE
Cable Address: Codes: A B C (4th, 5th & 6th Editions) “Attention, Luton.” A1, Bentley’s, & Marconi
Henry Durler
and Son, Ltd.
* * * * *
Importers, Exporters,
Bleachers & Dyers
* * * * *
of all kinds of
Chinese and Japanese
Straw Plaits
for
Hat Manufacture
* * * * *
Luton, Bedfordshire
ENGLAND
FOREWORD
It will be noticed throughout this book that the author has deviated from the dictionary methods of spelling words illustrative of the action of plait.
The Oxford Dictionary reads--
“Plait (pleit, ploet, plit) ... see also plat.”
“Plat. To form hats, etc., is now a less usual spelling than plait.”
“Plat-ting, the action of plat.”
Nuttall gives the pronunciation of plait as plate, and that of the action word plaited as plated.
In the district where the manufacture is sufficiently ancient to have established a claim to its regular pronunciation, plait, as it is invariably spelt, has always been pronounced plat, and the action words plat-ter, plat-ted, and plat-ting.
That this is not a local solecism of pronunciation is proved by the renderings given under the headings plat and platting in the Oxford Dictionary, and further, a literary and ancient example can be found in “A Lover’s Complaint,” where Shakespeare speaks of “a plat-ted hive.”
The author thinks it is time some definite method, in proper accord with the custom of the industry, should be adopted, and he proposes a precedent, which he claims to be well founded and sensible, viz., to continue to use the word plait (pronounced plat) as the substantive, and to establish the spelling plait-ter, plait-ted and plait-ting as designations of the action words properly interpreting the universal pronunciation.
I should like to express grateful thanks for assistance and information given me in the course of my work, to Messrs. Murry Barford (Mayor of Luton), of Barford & Sons, Luton; Percy Currant, of Currant & Creak, Luton; Henry George Draper, of Walsh & Sons, Luton; George Field, of Luton; Henry Gregory, of Gregory & Sons, Barbican, London, E.C.; Charles Hubbard, of Luton; Thomas Mann, of Vyse Sons & Co., Luton; James Saunders, F.L.S., of Saunders & Son, Luton; Frank E. Shoosmith, of Luton; John Irving Wright, J.P., of Luton; all of whom have intimate knowledge of the straw trade and its machinery; and to Mr. T. Maw, Librarian Luton Public Library.
The help of these gentlemen has materially added to the correctness of many details, of which my knowledge was uncertain.
HARRY INWARDS
Luton.
31st March, 1922.
CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
FOREWORD vii
I. ORIGIN AND CLASSICAL HISTORY 1
II. COMMERCIAL RISE AND GROWTH 13
III. STRAW PLAIT--METHOD OF PREPARING THE STRAWS 25
IV. STRAW HOODS--METHOD OF PREPARING AND OF WEAVING THE FIBRES 35
V. STRAW PLAIT AND PLAITTING 45
VI. DYEING 52
VII. BLEACHING 60
VIII. BLOCKMAKING 66
IX. HAND AND MACHINE SEWING 71
X. STIFFENING 84
XI. BLOCKING BY HAND 93
XII. BLOCKING BY MACHINE 100
XIII. FINISHING. POLISHING. TRIMMING. LINING 111
INDEX 125
ERMEN & ROBY’S
COTTON
IS LUTON’S FAVOURITE
BRAND
White and Black on 10,000 Yard Reels
All Colours on 5,000 Yard Reels
ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
FINISHING, LINING AND TRIMMING STRAW HATS Frontispiece
THE PETASUS 2
THE STEPHANOS 3
THE ETRUSCAN HAT 4
HAT OF PENELOPE 5
A POMPEIAN BONNET 5
STRAW PLAITTERS AT WORK 30
PANAMA HOOD MAKING 39
BLEACHING AND DYEING OF PLAITS AND HOODS 55
A TIPPER 69
SECTION OF FOUR ROWS OF PLAIT 72
SEWING STRAW PLAIT INTO HATS BY MACHINE 75
SECTION OF ROLLERS 82
STIFFENING STRAW HATS 89
HAND BLOCKING 97
MACHINE BLOCKING 103
MACHINE BLOCKING (BROCHIER TYPE) 109
EVERY DESCRIPTION OF STRAW HATS
OF
GUARANTEED
EXCELLENCE
The “Cavalier” Make
English Boater
Genuine “Luton Lodge”
REGD.
English Boater
Genuine “Walsh Luton”
REGD.
Established 1862
ROWLAND CUNNINGHAM
(WM. WALSH) LIMITED
STRAW HAT MANUFACTURERS
STUART LODGE HAT WORKS
LUTON, BEDS
Telegraphic Address:
“WALSH LUTON”
Telephone: 132 LUTON
Code A B C 4th & 5th Editions
MARCONI’S, BENTLEY’S
STRAW HATS
CHAPTER I
ORIGIN AND CLASSICAL HISTORY
The origin of what is known as a “Straw Hat” is lost in the mists of antiquity.
Ambiguous references to what may have been hats of vegetable materials are to be found in the works of almost all ancient writers, but very little that is specific can be discovered. Perhaps one reason for the paucity of information on this subject may be that the home made hats of plaitted straws or rushes were probably worn only by the common people. With society, as it existed in early days, if such were the case, the matter would be considered almost too vulgar for the classical writers to mention.
Doubtless in the earliest stages of human development any kind of convenient material was utilized by primeval man in the endeavour to keep his head or body warm or cool as the case might require.
Now the mere fact of the shelter afforded by trees would create some inducement towards using leaves for covering the body, for one may assume that even before vegetable products were gathered and used, say, as thatch, for collective shelter, some of them were adopted for individual protective purposes.
The earliest reference to such is the well-known account of the “aprons of fig leaves” mentioned in the third chapter of Genesis. This primitive method of clothing was soon followed by the use of skins (as noted later in the same chapter), but even in this record the vegetable product was used by man before that of animals, and shows in a most unmistakable, even if allegorical, manner, the natural trend of all development, viz., that articles easiest to procure are those that are first used.
Fig. 1 PETASUS, FROM PARTHENON FRIEZE (ELGIN MARBLE) BY PHIDIAS (circ. 450 B.C.) Shaded part is now broken.
It is, therefore, not unfair to assume that the manipulation of vegetable fibres, such as leaves, rushes, straws and other similar products, was really the earliest textile operation. That once conceded, it is no long step to the use of the “plaitted” article as a head covering.
The Encyclopaedia Britannica, in its articles on “Costume” and “Hats” states that the “modern hat can be traced back to the Petasus worn by the ancient Romans when on a journey”; and similar hats, known as Kausia, were also used by the ancient Greeks on like occasions.
The Greek Kausia and the Roman Petasus are described as “hats of a pliant material which could be bent down at the sides like that worn by Atalanta.”
La Croix, a French writer on the subject, assures us that the early Romans and Franks “sought Bast and Straw of which to make them hats,” and there is an antique statue of Mercury in the Vatican at Rome, which has for head covering a hat of a “wide-awake” nature, sculptured in close imitation of a finely plaitted straw.
The Goddess Hera (the Grecian name for the Roman Juno), Queen of Olympus, is depicted on ancient vases, coins and statues wearing a Stephanos [one of the statues, the original of which was by Praxiteles (350 B.C.), representing Hera Teleia standing, is known to moderns by copies to be found in the Vatican and other museums]. Pausanias (c. 160 B.C.) speaking of the coins of Argos, specifically describes Hera as wearing a Stephanos. This was a head covering consisting only of a crown, similar in shape to a modern Turkish fez inverted, of the same breadth and height all round, and was made of various vegetable products.
Fig. 2 STEPHANOS, FROM TERRA-COTTA (700 B.C.), BRITISH MUSEUM
In the British Museum is to be seen a small terra-cotta figure seated wearing the above sketched Stephanos in which the plaitting marks of coarse vegetable fibres are very distinct. This is probably the earliest extant record, in the plastic art, of a straw hat.
“Wicker work (poloi kalathoi) was also used by the ancient Greeks to make brim-less hats.” (Gerard. Antike Bildwerke.)
The ancient Etruscans wore what was known as a Tutulus, a brimless hat with a high pointed centre to the crown; and a broad brimmed hat similar to the Petasus, but with a pointed top like the Tutulus.
Etruria covered the district now occupied by the Italian straw plait and hat makers, but while there is an extreme likelihood, from the shape of the hat in the accompanying sketch, that the denizens of this fertile champaign, producing as it does, and probably did, unlimited materials that could be plaitted, made these hats of straw, there is no definite information as to their being constructed of any vegetable fibres.
Fig. 3 ETRUSCAN HAT (circ. 440 B.C.), HEAD OF PELEUS FROM PAINTING ON EARTHENWARE DISH FOUND IN A TOMB AT VULCI
Another very important link of classical interest with the remote past is shown in the two sketches of hats and bonnets as worn by the ancient inhabitants of ill-fated Pompeii.
The mural decorations of this long-buried city illustrate in a far more cogent manner than any other known examples, the probable actual appearance of the people who lived there before its catastrophe, and the hat shown on the head of Penelope is a model that has been imitated during the last thirty-five years. The little knob on the top is, however, quite novel.
The other example from Pompeii is from a comic fresco in which two men, dressed as women, are having an altercation, and here the artist has not only shown the lines which indicate the ridges of a woven vegetable fibre hat, but this painting provides the first known drawing of a Bonnet. Note the tilt at which it is worn, and the portion cut out at base to admit the neck, and also the absolute resemblance to what is known as a “Granny” Bonnet.
Fig. 4 HAT WORN BY PENELOPE
Fig. 5 BONNET
A very famous writer of antiquity (perhaps the one best known, except Caesar, to all scholars of Latin), Virgil, makes allusion in his Pastorals to the “plaitting of osiers and willows.”
Probably there is no race of men that has so closely maintained to the present time its ancient forms of clothing, as have the Arabs; and they occasionally wear a hat made of twisted bands of straw similar to a beehive. They are the only Moslems that do, and there is no trace of any other people of that religion wearing a similar head covering.
All this evidence from the Graeco-Roman and other ancient sources proves that the making in some way of straw hats was fairly general even in the earliest times in the countries of Asia Minor and south-eastern Europe, but some writers on the subject favour the claims of the Black Forest of Germany as having been the birthplace of the industry. This, of course, may be so, although no Germanic or Teutonic writers of equal antiquity have handed down such direct evidence as that of the Graeco-Romans.
But it seems a little invidious for any special part of the world to make such a claim, for doubtless the weaving of vegetable fibres was not confined to any particular area, but that primeval man all over the world practised the operation for his own needs.
There are no British records of straw hats until A.D. 1459, when it is narrated that Sir John Fastolfe died possessed of “ij Strawen hattes”; the “Promtorium parvulorum” of about that date renders the “hatte of straw” as capedulum.
Spenser, Shakespeare and Thynne, brilliant luminaries of the Elizabethan period, all make allusions to the straw hat.
Spenser, the Poet Laureate of Good Queen Bess (who herself is said to have worn a straw hat that may still be seen at Hatfield House), quite early in the sixteenth century says--
“Some plaid with straws,” etc.:
while Thynne, about 1570, in his “Debate between Pride and Lowliness” writes of a man with
“A strawen hatte upon his head
“The which was fastened underneath.”
Shakespeare in The Tempest (Act IV, Scene 1) makes Iris say--
“You sunburned sicklemen, of August weary
“Come hither from the furrow, and be merry;
“Make holyday: your rye straw hats put on
“And these fresh nymphs encounter every one
“In country footing.”
In A Lover’s Complaint, the immortal bard still further emphasizes the use, which apparently was fairly general, of the straw hat--
“Upon her head a platted hive of straw
“Which fortified her visage from the sun.”
This passage is interesting first on account of the use of the word hive. This object, as used for beekeeping, was without doubt very familiar to Shakespeare, and therefore the maid’s head covering, as it existed in the imagination of the poet, was probably similar to that worn by the Arabs mentioned previously, for she and they wore it as a protection against the sun’s heat. Second, Shakespeare’s spelling of the word “platted” was undoubtedly the method of spelling current at the time and was phonetic. (The author in the “Foreword” bases his reasons for using the double T in “plaitting” or “plaitter” in conjunction with the modern spelling of the word on this and other more recent well-known examples of literature co-eval with the birth of the trade in Great Britain.)
Ben Jonson, the Poet Laureate of James I, about 1630, in an epigram to Lady Mary Wroth, writes--
“He that saw you wear the wheaten hat,” etc.
The inimitable diarist, Pepys, describes an actress at the Duke’s Theatre as “dressed like a country maid with a straw hat on”: and mentions that while staying at Hatfield, “The women (of the party) had pleasure in putting on some Straw Hats, which are much worn in this country, which did become them mightily, but especially my wife!!”
It may be interesting at this point to mention a widely known subject, of which interpretations have been greatly at fault. One of Peter Paul Rubens’ best known paintings is entitled “La Dame au Chapeau de Poil.” The subject is of a lady wearing a large brimmed and somewhat high crowned hat adorned with a sweeping plume of feathers, and many writers on straw hats have endeavoured to show that the hat of the picture was made of straw, arguing that the word “Poil” in the title was an ancient form of the French word for straw, viz., “Paille.” It is true that some old Gaelic writers in mentioning the stalks of cereals have used various methods of spelling the equivalent for straw; “Pail,” “Paile” and “Paill” are to be found in sixteenth and seventeenth century books, but in no case has the word “Poil” ever been used, and quite rightly so, because this word means an entirely different thing, and is used to-day with the same spelling and for the same purpose as it was in the sixteenth century. “Poil” means “nap,” a raised “pile,” which can be obtained on various fabrics. This consists of a sufficient number of the loose ends of the staple, of which the material is woven or felted, being left on the surface, or afterwards raised by means of combs, etc., so as to form either a velvety richness on which the loose ends stand upright, or a glossy finish, like that obtained on a man’s top hat, where the loose ends are smoothed down. The real translation of the picture’s title is “The lady with a Pile hat,” in this case undoubtedly of some felted nature and of which the actual modern equivalent would be either a beaver, flamand or velour.
From this time onwards, as printing became more general, allusions to straw hats became frequent, and, with the advent of periodicals of fashions, etc., for ladies, both letterpress and illustrations confirm their widespread use. Naturally detail began to be given, and the poet Gay (cir. 1714) in his Pastorals sings of
“My new straw hat, thus trimly lined with green.”
In the Ladies Dictionary (1694) under the heading of “Apparel,” straw hats are mentioned as among the things “necessary to feminine adornment.”
Miss Constance Isherwood says that “Straw hats--became the rage among the reigning beauties of Queen Anne’s court and the early Georgian period.”
The Ladies’ Magazine of the eighteenth century has many plates showing various styles of what are certainly straw hats, the design and manipulation of the straws in woven hats and the detail of the plait in sewn hats being very carefully and distinctly engraved.
These excerpts from ancient as well as more recent authorities all tend to show the widespread use of the straw hat, and prove that the term “straw” was, as it is now, a most comprehensive one, and one in no way entirely confined to the stalks of cereals.
But they also show that, although straw hats were made all over the Continent, etc., the work on them was purely individual and local. There were no recognized centres of manufacture or distribution, for, excepting the fact that some localities were more productive of suitable materials for plaitting than others, the making of straw hats was universal, and it is not until the sixteenth century that any reliable information is obtainable of special centres for straw hat production. According to Cesare Cantu, a well-known Italian historian, the manufacture of hats of straw in the neighbourhood of Florence, for distribution outside the locality, can be traced back to the fourteenth century. This is probably quite true, but unfortunately the statement is not corroborated by any contemporaneous evidence. But in the year 1574, Signa, a village near Florence, was entitled “the original seat of the industry.” (From a consular report.) It is, therefore, almost safe to declare that the commercial life of the straw hat began in the district of Florence, and here, probably, for the first time in history, were to be found gathered together in sufficiently large numbers to make their wares marketable, persons both male and female engaged in weaving straws into hats, or capelli, or in plaitting straws into braids, which were called paglia or plait.
From Tuscany to Piedmont is not a “far cry,” and Coryat in his Crudities (a work published in 1611 and consisting of a series of observations made in a journey through Europe) says, “at many places in Piemont I observed most delicate strawen hats, which both men and women use in most places of that Province.”
Again, Piedmont is not very distant from Lorraine, and it is from this latter district, which was the country of the birthplace of her mother, that Mary, Queen of Scots, is said to have brought plaitters to Scotland in 1552, and thus to have introduced the art to the British Isles.
Some writers on this subject, failing to discriminate between plait and hats, adduce many adverse arguments (see below) when the claim is made that the unfortunate queen established the trade in the coasts of Britain. These point to the undoubted fact that straw hats were made both in Scotland and England before her time. That, of course, is quite true, but what is not equally certain is whether the hats made in the British Isles before 1552 were hats woven in one piece, or hats made of plaitted braid sewn afterwards in some manner to the required shape. In the old account of the transaction one reads that in Lorraine Mary noticed the people “profitably employed, some in plaitting straws and others in working (sic) the straw plait into hats.” It is, therefore, evident that it was an established industry in Lorraine and that both operations were being carried on. One may also deduce that, while the weaving of hats may have been common in Scotland, the making of plait and the subsequent making into hats was a novelty to Mary, and, therefore, in the interests of her Scottish subjects, she endeavoured to promote a similar industry in which they also might be “profitably employed.”
The late Mr. John Waller, of Luton, a member of one of the oldest families connected with the straw trade, after a careful and apparently unbiased investigation, says that the statement about Mary being the founder of the industry “can only be regarded as pleasing fiction”; and to support this quotes from Oldmixon’s History of England (edition of 1724) “That the manufacture of straw plait had thriven for about 100 years in the neighbourhood of Hemel Hempstead and Dunstable.” But from 1552 to 1624 is a long period, and one can easily imagine the natives of sunny Lorraine feeling none too homelike in “Caledonia, stern and wild.” With the accession of James I (Mary’s son) to the English throne, what could be more natural than the migration of these workers to more genial southerly temperatures, bringing with them their art? As James became king in 1603 there would have been plenty of time for the industry of making plait for sewing into hats being established between then and 1624, which would be exactly 100 years before Oldmixon’s account! And speaking of the advent of the Lorrainers into Beds and Herts, Mr. Thomas George Austin, in his book on the Straw Hat and Bonnet trade of the Luton District, writes, “It is said to be the true history of the introduction of the handicraft into England.”
One must, therefore, come to the conclusion that the system of making hats from plait, as distinct from the weaving the hat in one piece, was introduced by Mary, Queen of Scots, to Scotland, and from thence the method came south, and for reasons which will be set out hereafter, settled itself in the regions of South Bedfordshire, North-east Hertfordshire, and East Buckinghamshire.
CHAPTER II
COMMERCIAL RISE AND GROWTH
The history of a straw hat has thus been traced down to the latter half of the eighteenth century.
Prior to this period all kinds of straws, grasses, and fibres of vegetables had been utilized in the operation, the only limit as to material being the growths peculiar to the locality in which hat-making was carried on, so one may see that, as each locality probably grew different kinds of fibres, the result of the finished hats was different.
This difference early gave rise to local nomenclature, perhaps the first collective term was “Leghorn” (circ. 1650. Tomlinson’s Cyclopaedia, 1867). This now well-known variety of straw hat, woven first in braids and then cunningly put together in spiral sequence to the required shape, is not sewn overlapping, but with the braids laid edge to edge, and a fine tough straw or other fibre threaded through every other head on the impinging edges of the plait, and then drawn tight, so that the opposite heads fitting between and inside each other assumed the appearance of being woven in one piece, except that where the join took place, the thickness caused by the heads of the plait and the threading material, produced a ridge which, starting from the centre and running spirally to the edge of the brim, is one of the prominent characteristics of a “Leghorn.” This term, therefore, embodies, first, the place of origin; second, the material used; third, the method of using. If other local terms were thus early applied to straw productions, they have not, as far as the Continent of Europe is concerned, come down to modern times, all other names now in use (and they are legion) are the products of the late eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries.
All the materials used for plaitting up to about 1745 had been worked whole, that is, the fibre whether rush, grass or straw, was plaitted as it was grown, and consequently the hats of coarse weaving largely predominated; there being naturally a preponderance of the coarser parts of any vegetable growth.
Further, the manipulation of the bigger fibres was easier to fingers perhaps only infrequently devoted to the work, and therefore up to this period the majority of straw hats were thick and weighty. There were exceptions such as Leghorns that were plaitted from a variety of bearded wheat or rye (Triticum turgidum) grown in Tuscany. This was light in weight, comparatively tough, and of a fine natural golden colour. The upper part of the straw called Punta (or point) was used for all Leghorn hats, and also for making plait which was called Tuscan, from the locality of growth. When Tuscan was the only straw plait exported from Italy, Great Britain was one of the purchasers, and during the early part of the nineteenth century up to the repeal of the Corn Laws and the abolition of protective duties on other goods, British importers of Tuscan plait had to pay a duty of 8s. per lb. weight.
The desire to produce straw hats of less weight brought the bottom half of the straw column into use. That portion generally has a sheath, protecting it from the sun, which being stripped disclosed the under part of pearly white colour, this from being at the foot was called pedale, and although not so tough as the punta, was sufficiently so for plaitting purposes, and was very much lighter in weight. The first parcel of pedale plait arrived in Great Britain in 1878, and is supposed to have been purchased by Messrs. Carruthers & Co., of Luton.
But even then the quantity of fine pedale straws grown did not suffice for the increasing demands for straw hats.
The Italian straw, being so well established as the best material, caused workers to endeavour to find similar straw in other countries which had adopted straw hat making as a commercial undertaking.
It is probable that the climate of Scotland was not alone the cause for the migration of the Lorrainers; the search for fine white, light, straws, impossible to obtain in the cold north, may have drawn these operatives to the southern parts of England. Whatever the actual reason or reasons, it is certain that by 1624 the neighbourhood of South Bedfordshire (Dunstable), North-west Hertfordshire (Hemel Hempstead), and probably East Buckinghamshire was producing higher grade straw hats than any hitherto obtainable in the British Isles. The district comprises practically the whole of the Eastern ranges of the Chiltern Hills, an area of chalky subsoil. The discriminating Lorrainers quickly discovered the extreme beauty of colour of the Chiltern straws, and it is almost certain that for this reason alone the art of making plait braid was introduced into the locality, which from 1624 onwards has been undoubtedly the centre of the British straw hat industry.
Later on the straw plait making spread to portions of Essex and Suffolk, and although the plaits produced there were of much inferior quality and colour to those produced in the Chilterns, and, generally speaking, were not utilized for the highest class work, they formed a very useful adjunct to the plait stocks required by hat manufacturers when large quantities were needed. Another English centre for straw plaitting was Ripon in Yorkshire, the district around being the seat of quite a fair-sized industry. It is interesting to note this, for it seems to show that the Lorrainers in their southerly migration, had stopped en route, and had sampled the straws grown on the Yorkshire chalk.
But all this evidence tends to prove that the nature of the soil which produced the proper straw for plaitting caused the trade to localize around Dunstable. This ancient borough, practically in the centre of the plaitting districts, situated on the Watling Street, along which passed all the traffic between London and the north-west of England and Northern Wales, at the junction of the Icknield way (another ancient Roman road crossing the Watling Street towards the east and west), was in the middle of the fifteenth century alive all day with the hum of people and merchandise travelling to and fro. Sitting astride of the trunk roads leading everywhere in Great Britain, it is small wonder that this little town, of vast ecclesiastical importance in the Middle Ages, but much decayed since the time of Henry VIII, became the place from whence all the products of the neighbourhood could be dispatched.
And, therefore, the name of “Dunstable,” another of the now world-known local names, was given to the plait, hats and bonnets which emanated from the whole vicinity.
The great preponderance of coarse straws, combined with the increasing demands for hats made of fine plaits, caused straw workers to endeavour to make the straws smaller by splitting the “pipes” (as the whole straw is called) into narrower portions called “splints.” This was done at first with a knife, but the result was generally unsatisfactory, although some skilled workers managed to acquire really wonderful deftness in the operation. It was plait called “Patent Dunstable” made of these split straws that gave this plaitting area its first textile claim to distinction. Some one, now unknown, found out that two fine splints of straw laid together, inside to inside, produced when plaitted an effect equal to that of the whole straw, and yet enabled plaitters to make the finest and narrowest widths of plait. The clumsy method of cutting with a knife was apparently the only possible way of making splints until the time of the Napoleonic Wars.
The French prisoners at Yaxley Barracks, near Stilton, produced “pretty and useful articles such as baskets, workboxes, mats, etc.” (Mr. Alfred Tansley Soc. Art., 1860). These were decorated with “laid work,” a kind of mosaic pattern made of coloured straw splints, cut to various sizes and pasted on suitable foundations. “For the purpose of making these splints, they used a straw splitter made of bone, about two inches long, brought to a point behind which a set of cutters was arranged in a circle, the point entered the straw pipe separating it into so many equal sized splints” (Tansley). This instrument was soon copied by a Dunstable blacksmith named Janes (some authorities say Norman) who made some in iron and turned the cutting parts at right angles to an elongated stem, which could be used as a handle. These were subsequently also made in brass, and in 1815 other varieties, in the form of metal wheels set in wooden frames, appeared. Mr. Tansley says, “To this invention may be attributed the success which in after times has attended the manufacture of straw plait in England.”
The two methods of working straws, either whole or split, opened up a wide field for diversity of plaitting, and quickly novelties began to appear. From 1815 to the present day, at intervals sometimes short and sometimes very long, new designs of plait have been put on the market, and now there is no style of shape that cannot be suitably fitted up with one or more plaits.
British plaitters have not been content to use only the straws grown in the five counties. They have ransacked the world for materials, wood cut into fine shavings or splints, Manila grasses or hemp, manufactured splints of cotton, silk, or similar fibres, stuck together in a flat ribbon called a “lame,” horsehair, bamboo, raffia, and many other articles have been used for the purpose. At one time 30,000 persons were engaged in the plaitting industry, but by 1890 the number had dwindled to under 3,000. The reasons for this decline were manifold. Although the district had produced, and was still producing, straws better than any other continental centre, yet about 1855 the demand for something different from the plaits made solely of straw induced foreign plaitting communities to plait fancy materials which before had been used for other purposes. Switzerland and France began to make pretty and delicate patterns of plait or braid, woven both by hand and by machinery, of all kinds of fancy fibres such as silk, horsehair (or crinoline as termed by milliners), fine ribbons, etc., in various combinations of one or two or more of the above articles either with or without straws. Further attempts in the way of decoration were made by intermixtures of glass beads and bugles.
These very fanciful braids had a wonderful success, for they were especially adaptable for bonnets, which to about 1865 were much more in demand for fashionable wear than hats.
This invasion of a large quantity of displacing material adversely affected the volume of plaitting in England, and still further damage was done when Italy began to send over plain and fancy plaits made of willow shavings, as well as fine straw punta and pedale plaits similar to Twist, which was by then the mainstay of the fine plait trade. (Twist was a 7 end straw with a twisted beadhead made of fine splints, two of which laid inside to inside formed one strand for plaitting.) In 1867 the “last nail in the coffin” of British straw plaitting was driven by the first import of plait from China, and in that same year the distress in and around Dunstable was so great that the then Mayor, Mr. Joseph Gutteridge, called a public meeting to discuss methods for its alleviation.
As the far eastern countries of China and Japan now play such an important part in the world’s straw hat trade, it will be of interest to note how British traders first came in contact with their goods. Doubtless from time immemorial the deft “Chinee” had been accustomed to the weaving of grasses, etc., into hats and mats, and it is stated that the attention of Luton hat makers was first drawn to the possibility of getting plait from China, by seeing some “hats (mats?) which had been used for lining chests of tea.”
Whatever the cause, in 1867, from plaitted samples sent to them, the Chinese were able to imitate, in their native grown straws, the products of England in such an excellent manner and at such a low price, that the fiercest competition was at once created. People engaged in the trade were so exasperated at the circumstance, that they made an effigy of the importer and burned it in the Luton Market Place. The competition of the increasing bulk of China straw plait imports, together with the Italian imitation of Dunstable twist (called at first “Milan,” and now generally known as “7 ends Pedal”) made the plaitting trade in the five counties to decrease rapidly.
“The Society of Arts have at various times rewarded many individuals for successful attempts to introduce bonnets formed of grasses indigenous to Britain,” says Tomlinson, in his Cyclopaedia published in 1867, but all these well meant efforts to revive the industry were unavailing. Neither for price nor quantity (which latter was rapidly becoming almost the prime necessity) could British plaitters successfully compete with the Italians and the Chinese for plaits of narrow grades, although quantities of wider plaits both of plain and fancy designs continued to be made. About 1890 plait began to arrive from Japan, and just as the British straw was better than the Italian and Chinese, so the Japanese was superior to the British. It was of the most delicate pearly colour, it was infinitely lighter in weight, and it could be obtained in far bigger pipes than any European or Chinese growths, and its adaptability both for whole and split plaits was equal to all.
In straw plait, therefore, the Japanese were able to compete successfully, but in a short time they put on the market an article made of wood splints plaitted with three strands, called “Chip 3 ends.” This plait, of Italian make originally, from its extremely low price and colour possibility, was the material backbone of the ladies’ hat trade for some years. In later times a braid made of hemp by machinery, called Tagal or Tégal, originated in Switzerland and Italy. Quickly adopted by the Japanese, they have been able to supplant the earlier producers, and as with the Chip 3 ends, to provide varieties which have almost monopolized the hat making markets for the million.
In 1896 the plaitting trade was in such a bad state that some of the principal hat makers in the district determined to attempt the rescue of the plaitters. For that purpose the “British Straw Plaitting Company” was formed, the writer of this book being appointed Chairman of a very representative Board of Directors. Manufacturers were eager to assist, and for the first twelve months the company showed great promise. A revival of plaitting (although with other materials than straw and of fresh designs) ensued, and better prices were paid so that wages were much advanced. But the Swiss and Italians took fright, and for the next two years so successfully competed by cutting prices, that in 1899 the company was obliged to cease operations.
In fact, not only could better materials for plaitting be found in other parts of the world, but in those parts the natives, who (as the Ency. Britt. says about the Chinese) “could live where an Englishman would starve,” were able to produce plait at prices which made it impossible for plaitters in England to earn a living. But fortunately as the plaitting trade declined the hat and bonnet making of Dunstable and Luton was increasing as fast as its predecessor fell.
In 1865 the first attempts to sew plait by machinery were made, previously all had been sewn by hand, a long and tedious process, when fine plaits were involved.
This took the form of sewing several pieces of fine plait in a parallel form, making strips of an increased width, which were then sewn by hand to the desired shape. A little later an American named Bodsworth introduced a machine which was capable of sewing plait into hats and bonnets, but unlike all subsequent models, which start at the centre of the top of the crown, this machine started sewing at the edge of the brim. This materially lessened the field of shape variety, and although great improvements were effected by skilfulness of working, and although the machine was adopted by Messrs. Vyse Sons & Co., it was not taken up generally by the trade.
The well-known firm of Willcox & Gibbs, makers of a domestic chainstitch sewing machine, had an agent in Luton named Edward Stratford, and about 1870 his wife, in response to a friendly challenge, sewed the first straw hat from centre to circumference. The day following this epoch making occurrence Mrs. Stratford sewed another hat out of a fine make of “English China Purl” (a fine fancy edged plait); this hat is said to be still in existence.
From 1870 the whole trade was revolutionized, all fine plaits eventually were sewn by machine, only the coarsest and broadest widths being sewn by hand. In 1874 Mr. Henry Bland, a Luton mechanic, turned his attention to making alterations to the Willcox & Gibbs’ domestic machine, in order to render it more suitable for sewing straw plait. He took out patents to cover his improvements, which were subsequently acquired by Messrs. Willcox & Gibbs, who issued the new machine to the Trade under the title of “The 10-Guinea” straw hat sewing machine. But this visible stitch machine had a fault which made it unsuitable for the best work, inasmuch as the stitch was prominent on the outside of the hat, and the demand for handsewn invisible stitch continued unabated for goods of the best quality. Various machines were introduced to imitate handsewing, most of them failures, but M. Légat, a Frenchman, patented one in 1875 that even up to the present time has never been surpassed for close resemblance in its work to that done by hand, but although the machine was taken up seriously by the best houses of Great Britain and France, its large initial cost, and heavy charges for maintenance, allowed it only to retain its supremacy pending the advent of a less intricate, delicate and costly model.
In 1878 Mr. Edmund Wiseman (who is still living), of Luton, took out a patent for a machine to sew plaits with a “concealed” stitch. In 1880 some improvements were made, and for some years the “Wiseman Concealed Stitch” machine sold at about half the price of the “Légat,” and by no means as intricate and delicate, gradually displaced the French machine. Between 1880 and 1886, Mr. Bland, of Luton, and Mr. William Walker of Dunstable, both patented concealed stitch machines, but without much success. In 1886 Mr. Wiseman entered into arrangements with the Willcox & Gibbs Co. to produce an improved concealed stitch machine that from its shape and method of action was called the “Box machine.” This, although on the same lines as the first invention with regard to the method of stitch and sewing, was capable of sewing all kinds of plait both fine and coarse, whereas the earlier patent was only really successful on fine plaits. This Box machine has been greatly improved since 1886, but taken on the whole, its general characteristics are the same. In 1895 Messrs. Janes Bros., of Luton, took out a patent for a concealed stitch machine called the “Lutonia,” which has met with a very distinct success. Meanwhile the demand for hats of certain plaits, which were improved by the outside stitch sewing, kept on increasing, and indeed there are plaits on which even the so called “visible” stitches are invisible. Plaits of cotton, silk, ajour, and crinoline are of such nature that the cotton used in the outside stitch machine sewing seems to lose or bury itself in the material of the braid, and there is less likelihood of the needle catching in their tough fibres than there is in the working of the Box machine, where a hook is used; and further for some years plaits of fine chip were the dominant demand, and for these there was less tendency on the part of the fine single needle of the visible stitch machine to cut the narrow wood strands, than if the double punctuation of the Box machine needle and hook were used. In 1879, therefore, the Willcox & Gibbs Co. took out a patent for what is now known as the “17 Guinea” type of visible stitch sewing machines. This model has been closely followed by the “Dresdensia,” a German product of signal value; and “The Singer,” an American competitor, both of which are in the main imitations or copies of the 1879 patent. It is a fact worthy of note that the first successful machine to sew a hat of straw plait from button to circumference of brim was a Willcox & Gibbs, and that the latest word in straw sewing is also, by the arrangement with Mr. Wiseman, a product of the same firm.
Other machinery used for making straw hats consists of a variety of “Blocking” machines. As will be shown hereafter, the most primitive means were adopted at first, but when the hydraulic type made its appearance it soon left no room for any other method. The appliances of Messrs Desbordes, Desireau, Légat, Beresford, Keston, Brochier and Stoffel (described in Chapter XII) have now rendered possible the blocking of all kinds of shapes and materials by machine.
The plait mill, made of both wood and iron, completes the list of mechanical appliances used in making a straw hat.
But at the present time all hat sewing machines, which for at least twenty-five years were driven by the foot power of the operator, are worked by mechanical power, either from a gas or steam engine, or by electrical dynamos.
CHAPTER III
STRAW PLAIT--METHOD OF PREPARING THE STRAWS
The foregoing details, mainly devoted to the classical and historical side of straw hat manufacture, have demonstrated that the word “straw” is very elastic in its meaning when applied to its use for making hats. All classes of vegetable fibres have been included at some time or other in its embrace, and to-day the range of materials technically known as “straws” is larger than at any previous time. But as the industry of straw hat making centred itself in the locality of South Bedfordshire on account of the superior straw, and because the process of splitting and subsequent manipulation effected a total revolution in straw hat working, a description of the processes common in that district will, with a few minor exceptions, serve as an example for all plait making. The straws used in England are principally those of wheat, the exceptions are very small. They are specially grown by careful methods of tillage, and at the proper period are cut either with the sickle or with the scythe, the mowing machine being likely to bruise the stalks. They are tied into suitable bundles, considerably smaller than the usual sheaf, with the ears of corn as nearly level as possible; these are then cut off and used for grain purposes. The bundles of straw are carefully “combed” with a coarse wooden comb to rid the stalks of all the loose portions and thin blades. They are then cut into the standard lengths, about 10 ins. long, and are ready for sizing. This is effected by working through a series of sieves, with somewhat deep sides. As the straws have been carefully gathered with ears uppermost, it naturally follows that all the similar thicknesses of stalk are together, and therefore the process of sorting becomes a fairly speedy one. The cut lengths now become straw pipes, and they are first placed on the largest end in the largest grade sieve, the pipes smaller than the mesh fall through, leaving only those of the coarsest dimensions. This process is repeated until all the varying thicknesses of straw have been sorted into their respective sizes. They are then tied up carefully into bundles of about 5 ins. in diameter, and are ready for the plaitter.