Posted 10 years ago
jscott0363
(903 items)
Here is the interior of the antique French hat trunk that I just posted. It still has its' original elastic hat holder bands as well as its' original hat pin cushion (or hat holder if you will).
The interior was heavily stained and I was unable to bring out the stains. So, the next option was to reline the interior. I don't like to do that unless absolutely necessary. And this one was absolutely necessary.
The last photo is an example of how the hat would pin into the lid of the trunk.
Thanks for looking!!
Scott
Thanks for loves
Cindy and pops!!
Beautiful and interesting hat trunk!
Thank you Virginia!! It is a bit different from what we usually see in hat trunks.
Thanks for the loves
Trunkman
Virginia.vintage
pops52
Julie
and Cindy!!
Thanks walksoftly for the love!!
Thanks aghcollect for the love!!
Thanks PatSea for the love!!
Another great looking trunk as usual Scott! Now riddle me this: how is that hat holder pin cushion thing supposed to work?
The person who sold me my large wardrobe trunk contacted me a few months later with some extra pieces they had found, and one of them was this hat ball thing - they told me it was for hats as well but couldn't explain how it worked or even where it was supposed to attach in the trunk I have.
I knew people were smaller back then but their heads couldn't have been THIS small! So I've sort of ruled out it's use as a holder to retain the hat's shape, and yours is the first similar item I've seen - so I'm eager for some schoolin'...!
Thanks for the comment Kydur!! The pin cushion is what the ladies pin their hat to with hat pins. By pinning their hat to the hat pin cushion, the hat remained secure during travel. It's not really intended to pin a man's hat to.
The elastic straps on either side of the pin cushion are for the brim of your hat to slip under and the straps hold the hat in place during travel. Hope this answers some questions for you:)
By the way, those hat pin cushions are kind of rare to find. So, you may want to hold on to the one you have.
Thanks
vetraio50 and Kydur
for the loves!
Thanks Scott, but I'm still confused... Pinning the hat to the cushion implies that the hat fits semi-snugly around the cushion, but then this brings up the question again about head size - and the ball I have seems too small unless one was planning a trip to visit a head-shrinking tribe somewhere! Mine is approximately 4" wide and 3" high; maybe yours is larger?
Will definitely be keeping my hat cushion. The fabric on it matches the rest of the fabric liner in the trunk so I presume it's part of the trunk accessories and just need to figure out where it attaches to. The trunk is in in storage at the moment so I haven't spent any time figuring it out and maybe it'll be quite obvious once I'm able to have a better look.
I do have access to the hat thing though. It has a very tattered (and more than 50% missing) label on the back part where the screw mount is. It reads " ?? & B HAT CARRIER C??; ?? Street N.E. Washington, D.C.
I see there's also a visible Patent # 782096 (and another that's obliterated) - this is good! But still doesn't resolve the questions:
http://pdfpiw.uspto.gov/.piw?Docid=00782096&homeurl=http%3A%2F%2Fpatft.uspto.gov%2Fnetacgi%2Fnph-Parser%3FSect1%3DPTO1%2526Sect2%3DHITOFF%2526d%3DPALL%2526p%3D1%2526u%3D%25252Fnetahtml%25252FPTO%25252Fsrchnum.htm%2526r%3D1%2526f%3DG%2526l%3D50%2526s1%3D0782096.PN.%2526OS%3DPN%2F0782096%2526RS%3DPN%2F0782096&PageNum=&Rtype=&SectionNum=&idkey=NONE&Input=View+first+page
Great info Kydur!! To answer your question about the head size. The hat cushion is not designed for the hat to fit snuggly around. It's sole purpose is to just be there to pin your hat to. So the size of the pin cushion does not necessarily reflect the head size of the hat. Just a pin cushion to pin your hat to.
As far as the pin cushion that you have. Check out ebay and you'll see what I'm talking about regarding the rarity of your pin cushion.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Hat-Form-Antique-Victorian-Vintage-Hat-Pin-Cushion-Pillow-RARE-FIND-DATED-1905-/390834565422?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item5aff8e312e
So a really long hat pin (which I know they had in those days!) is long enough to reach the cushion, or the hat is just offset in the box so as one side is touching the hat for the purpose of the pin?
Wowsers on that eBay price! $150 for the cushion and I paid $100 for the entire trunk! Of course the asking price may be a lot more than what it actually sells for. Will keep an eye on that link to see if it ever sells.
If it's not too much bother, perhaps you could have a look at the photos of my wardrobe trunk that the hat cushion is a part of to see if you know where it might fasten? My guess is the large lower drawer? This mystery is now encouraging me to pull it out of storage and start cleaning it up!
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/142180-wardrobe-steamer-trunk
Yes Kydur, the length of the hat pin depended largely on the size of the hat. Some of the hats, in those days, were very elaborate and large. For those, you'd probably use a 6" long hat pin. Others may only require a 3" long hat pin. My wife found a bunch of hat pins at an antique mall for $5.00. The pins range in length from 3" to a little longer than 6".
Thanks for all the info Scott. I hadn't intended to hijack your comments area with my stuff (!) so I've since photographed and posted my hat cushion so that any comments related to it aren't taking away from your excellent hat trunk and restoration!
http://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/144185-t-and-b-hat-carrier-co-washington-d-c-ha
Ha just post comment asking for the pin cushion! Now I see ;-))
Thanks for the comment and the love kyratango!!
Kydur, that's no problem at all. I'm here to learn about items I'm not familiar with and to gain more knowledge of the items I already own. Thank you for all of your comments:)
Thanks for the love Roycroftbooksfromme1!!
Thanks officialfuel for the love!
Thanks eye for the comment and the love. I've since added a photo of how the hat would have pinned to the cushion. Thanks again:)
Thanks eye!! I'm also guessing you could strap something like a small derby/bowler hat under the straps for travel as well. I've tried my Bowler hat and the straps secure it quite well:)
very beautiful!!! ;)
Thank you Sean!! Really didn't want to reline it, but I had no choice on this one.
your very welcome jscotto!! :)I understand !!
Thanks for the love valentino97!!
Hi Scott,Had a computer crash over x-mas not fun ,not love what you did to maintain the interior integrity of this trunk. It is special, I wonder if the original fabric was stripped ?
Thanks Drill!! The original interior was plain solid colored canvas. The canvas was stained so severely. I tried to clean it, but, without success. My wife actually chose the fabric. Glad your computer is back up and running. I was wondering where you'd been. Hope you had a nice Christmas!!!
She has wonderful taste, You did a fab job .Had a bad Apple for a while or maybe just one with worms,nice to be back online ,Holiday was good hope yours was as well . You put up some other wonderful trunks to look at ,so I'm gonna have a peak.
Thanks for the loves
filmnet
valentino97
SEAN68
eye4beauty
officialfuel
kyratango
Roycroftbooksfromme1
vetraio50
Kydur
PatSea
aghcollect
walksoftly
trunkman
Virginia.vintage
Julie
Cindy
and
pops
Thank you AmberRose for the love and Happy New Year to you!!
Thanks for the love Lourdes!!
Thanks for the love TrunkerMarvin! Much appreciated!
Thanks Manikin for the love!! Much appreciated!!
Jenni,
Thanks very much for the love and for stopping by!!