Man's Uniform Hat
HatterMade by
Ridabock & Co.
American
Date1890-1900
MediumMachine-stitched dark blue wool, apparently over buckram, with a leather sweatband, cotton sateen lining, a pattent leather visor, a tooled leather band, gilt-brass ornaments and bosses, and worsted soutache braid
DimensionsPrimary Dimensions (length from visor front to cap back x crown height x visor width): 10 1/2 x 4 x 6in. (26.7 x 10.2 x 15.2cm)
ClassificationsCostume
Credit LineConnecticut Museum of Culture and History collection
DescriptionNew York National Guard uniform hat, made of machine-stitched dark blue wool, apparently over buckram. The hat has a black leather sweatband and a black cotton sateen lining. The lining of the crown is stamped with a maker's label (see Marks). Around the base of the crown is a one-inch-wide band of black leather, with a tooled, beaded edge. There is a one-inch-wide band of white wool broadcloth around the top of the crown. At the center front of the hat, two brass rings hold an ornament on the front of the hat in place. This applied, gilt brass ornament consists of a cross and starburst, over which there is a garter bearing the words, "VIGILANTIA N.G. S N.Y." In the black, japanned center of the ornament, there are two applied brass numbers, forming the number, "23". The hat has a downward sloping visor of black pattent leather. The visor is lined on the underside with a dark green embossed leather and edged with a machine-stitched strip of black leather. Just behind each end of the visor, on the leather band around the base of the hat, are one-inch-diameter, gilt-brass bosses. The bosses each bear crossed rifles on the face, with a 3/4-inch-long brass hook extending from the lower surface of the boss. The hooks may have held a chin strap. Extending across the front of the hat, between the bosses, at the lower edge of the black leather band, is a 1/8-inch-wide, white worsted soutache braid.
Object number2003.204.0
MarkingsMaker label stamped in gilt lettering inside the crown of the hat, "RIDABOCK & CO./ FORMERLY/ BAKER & MCKENNEY,/ MILITARY GOODS/ 141/ GRAND ST. NEW YORK".At the center front of the underside of the visor is what appears to be a size tag. The tag reads, "6 1/2".
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