Hatbands: from those with “three score great pearls” to the one penny “course hatt bandes”

 Hatbands became a fashionable item in the sixteenth century, declining at the end of the seventeenth century as fashions in hats changed. Hat ornaments, items such as buttons and individual jewels that could be pinned or sewn onto a cap, were common in the first part of the sixteenth century, but when caps are replaced by the hat, particularly the stiffer felt or beaver hat with a taller crown, then bands come into their own.

Figure 1: Sir Nicholas Poyntz by Hans Holbein. c.1535.

 

Looking at caps in Holbein portraits from the first half of the sixteenth century you can see plain caps, such as that worn by Sir Thomas More in his portrait from around 1527, but many of those among the gentry and nobility have decoration. This decoration could be a single item, as in the portrait of Sir Richard Southwell c.1536, or sometimes the decoration went completely round the cap as in Sir Nicholas Poyntz portrait, the original version of which was painted around 1535. [Figure 1] It maybe that when this level of decoration was reached it was easier, or better, to put all the decoration on a band that could then be removed from one cap and put on another, rather than having to take each item off individually. Caps and bands could be given as gifts. In the list of items given by Queen Elizabeth I in 1574 is “One Cappe of blak taphata having a bande of goldesmythes worke conteyning xxv Hartes and Roses enameled and with thre litle pearles pendaunte to every harte”, the recipient appears to have been a child, Thomas Sidney (1569-1595). (1)

Figure 2: Elizabeth Knollys, Lady Leighton, attrib.George Gower. 1577. Montacute House

 

High crowned hats with  jewelled hatbands can be seen in many portraits, for example the 1577 portrait of Elizabeth Knollys, [Figure 2]or the portrait of Elizabeth Cornwallis from 1573, both of which show this style of hat worn with a jewelled hatband and feathers. In 1563 Raphael Hammond, Queen Elizabeth’s haberdasher, supplied her majesty with “a hatt bande of damaske gold and [with] a plume of whit and blacke feathers with a toppe of fyne egret fethers in it.” (2 p. 200)

The late Elizabethan and the Jacobean periods are the height of the fashion for jewelled hatbands. James VI and I was painted for his wedding in 1595 wearing a tall black hat with a jewelled hatband, a large jewelled ornament in the shape of an A, he was marrying Anne of Denmark, and a small plume of feathers. [Figure 3] On his accession to the English throne he ordered many hats with bands, including richly embroidered bands, bands of Venice gold and silver and a band of velvet, for a cap of black velvet, which was to “set Juelles in.” (2 p. 200) His son Prince Henry also had highly jewelled hatbands, and prior to his death in 1612 had ordered a, “riche hatband all of dyamants with a great Jewell toe it in forme of a Rose.” (3 p. 177) In Prince Henry’s 1608 wardrobe accounts are bills for “embroidering an hatband with several sorts of pearle, having set among the pearle rubies, emerods, and opals; having also three score great pearls £26,” and for a cheaper “band embroidered with pearl £4.” Pearle, sometime spelt purl, in this sense, is a thread for metalwork embroidery, where a silk core has a fine gold or silver wire or strip wound round it. The thread is then couched onto the background fabric. 

Figure 3: James VI & I. 1595. National Galleries of Scotland.

 

These jewelled hatbands were not confined to royalty. In 1619 Lady Dorothy Thornhurst had stolen from her in London, “two hatbandes with gold buttons set and wrought with Berills and Rubies worth ten pounds.” (4) Richard, 3^rd Earl of Dorset, colour co-ordinated his outfits and had his hatbands match his suits. His 1617 wardrobe account shows that his tawney-coloured suit had a “hatband of tawney sattin embroad with gold and crimson silke and laced with gold lace with a rose of tawney sattin and gold lace,” while a black and silver suit had a “hatband embroadered with gold and silver upon black taffeta made up with gold and silver lace” (5)

The less ostentatious hatbands belonging to royalty could be just gold and silver lace, or embroidered with gold and silver purl. In the year 1633 King Charles I ordered 25 gold and silver hatbands, and three that were just black. (6 p. 82)  The portrait by Edward Bower of Charles I at his trial shows him wearing a black hat with a very plain black hatband. These were considerably less expensive than those with jewels, in the Middlesex Sessions accounts are the values for ten gold or gold and silver hatbands stolen between 1610 and 1628, they range in value from one shilling (described as old) to one pound. (4) The Howard accounts in 1623 list “for a bever hat for Mrs Marie with a gould band 54s.” (7 p. 206) Hats were usually ordered with bands, rather than the bands being ordered separately. In 1631 the haberdasher Benjamin Frewin delivered, “to Mr, William Weld, ye 9th of January 1631 : It. for a fine black bever lynd head, and for a gould band 2 it £3 4s 0d , It. for a fine colerd felt, lynd, and a thick gould and silver band 16s 0d.” The difference in value of these two items is mainly down to beaver hats being considerably more expensive than felt hats. (8)

Less valuable than gold and silver were silk hatbands, when in 1631 Frewen delivers just “a black silke band 2 the bever” value is just two shillings. (8) In 1610 Luke Shirburn leaves in his will “my best hatt, which is faced with velvet and hath a round silke band.” (9 p. 177)  Cypress, sometimes spelt sipers, was a poplar thin silk for hatbands. In 1612 John Willoughby paid “for 1 yard & half of silk syps for a hat band 3s 6d.” In 1618 Ann Large, servant to a shoemaker, had “an old hatt, and a Sipers band 2s,” her entire estate was only worth £3 15s 9d. (10 p. 29) A cypress band might possibly look like that worn by Alice Walton, her 1620s tomb effigy, in St Nicholas Gloucester, shows her wearing a twisted fabric band on her hat.[Figure 4]  In 1629 a plumber, Richard Saunders, left, “one old silke and silver hat band and one old small twist silke and silver hatt band. 2s 6d.” (10 p. 71) James Master esquire has several hatbands in his set of accounts, in 1647 and 1648 he pays “for an hat with a black silk hatband 17s” and for a band on its own 2 shillings. (11 p. 171 & 176)

Figure 4: Alice Walton d.1629. St Nicholas Church, Gloucester

 

While most bands were bought with the hat they could be purchased separately from haberdashers and other merchants, especially for the lower classes. In 1612 the haberdasher Humphrey Ellis had in stock “4 dosen of Chayn bands for hattes of Cruell 5s,” these work out at a penny farthing each. (10 p. 14) Chayn bands may indicate a warp faced, worsted band, the word chayne is sometimes used to indicate the warp and cruell (crewel) is a worsted yarn. In 1639 Stockport the merchant John Bolande had over £8 worth of hatbands in stock, not including “twenty dozen of course hatt bandes £1,” hatbands that were valued at only a penny each. (12 pp. 220-3) These bands could be wide or narrow. The lady wearing a broad brimmed hat in Hollar’s Ornatus has a narrow band, a detail can be seen in Figure 5.