A beaver hat is a hat made from felted beaver fur. They were fashionable across much of Europe during the period 1550âÂÂ1850 because the soft yet resilient material could be easily combed to make a variety of hat shapes (including the familiar top hat). Smaller hats made of beaver were sometimes called beaverkins, as in Thomas Carlyle's description of his wife as a child.
Used winter coats worn by Native Americans were a prized commodity for hat making because their wear helped prepare the skins, separating out the coarser hairs from the pelts. Additionally, trappers would most often obtain the beaver during winter when its coat was more dense and thus warmer compared to summer months.
To make felt, the underhairs were shaved from the beaver pelt and mixed with a vibrating hatter's bow. The matted fabric was pummeled and boiled repeatedly, resulting in a shrunken and thickened felt. Filled over a hat-form block, the felt was pressed and steamed into shape. The hat maker then brushed the outside surface to a sheen.
Evidence of felted beaver hats in western Europe can be found in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, written in the late 14th century: "A Merchant was there with a forked beard / In motley, and high on his horse he sat, / Upon his head a Flandrish [Flemish] beaver hat." Demand for beaver fur led to the near-extinction of the Eurasian beaver and the North American beaver in succession. It seems likely that only a sudden change in style saved the beaver.
Beaver hats were made in various styles as a matter of civil status:
In addition, beaver hats were made in various styles as a matter of military status:
The popularity of the beaver hat declined in the early/mid-19th century as silk hats became more fashionable across Europe.
Early modern records refer to "castor" and "demicastor" hats, derived from the French and Latin word for beaver, "castor". Demicastor was a felt made from beaver, rabbit fur, and wool. In Scotland, Anne of Denmark gave a castor hat to her husband James VI as a New Year's Day gift in January 1591. She also gave castor hats to her servants, including the secretary Calixtus Schein. James VI played cards with the Duke of Lennox for the stake of a new "black castor hat lined with velvet". In April 1665, a Sussex vicar recorded his purchase of a "shaggy demicastor hat of the fashion".
"Carroting" was a chemical treatment âÂÂthat contained poisonous ingredients such as mercuryâ that assisted greatly in the felting process. The history of the process was considered a âÂÂtrade secretâ and thus many people used different ratios or recipes to make their carroting solution. Carroting allowed the beaver fur to be felted so tightly that it was the only material that would allow a wide a durable rim.
This process made it possible to make quality hats out of low quality furs such as hareâÂÂwhich are domestic but difficult to felt without the chemical process.
Through the use of mercury in the carroting process, the heavy metal would eventually enter the blood system of the hatters leading to the term "mad as a hatter."
A Biberhut or Bieber Hit (Biber is the German word for beaver) is a hat worn by some Ashkenazi Jewish men, mainly members of Hasidic Judaism. Two variations exist; the Flache (flat) Bieber Hat, which is mainly worn by adherents of Satmar Hasidim and some Yerushalmi Jews, and the Hoiche (tall) Bieber Hat also referred to as the Polish Hat, worn by most other Hasidic Jews.