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Finally scored a Derby

cooncatbob

Practically Family
Messages
612
Location
Carmichael, CA.
Received this today. It was very dusty so I actually had to vacuum it and wipe it down with a damp sponge. It's a little round so it's on the stretcher. Only problem with a black hat and this is my 1st , is it shows all the cat hair, lint and dust.
1435756696_6b3b8a4007.jpg
 

fatwoul

Practically Family
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923
Location
UK
cooncatbob said:
...Only problem with a black hat and this is my 1st , is it shows all the cat hair, lint and dust...

Yep, they are a nightmare. Our cat is virtually black, so how do her hairs appear to painfully visible on a black felt hat? :rage: lol
 

Doh!

One Too Many
Messages
1,079
Location
Tinsel Town
Nice! My dad has a derby (or is it a bowler?) that he no longer wears. I might just have to snatch it from him the next time I visit.
 

cooncatbob

Practically Family
Messages
612
Location
Carmichael, CA.
fatwoul said:
Yep, they are a nightmare. Our cat is virtually black, so how do her hairs appear to painfully visible on a black felt hat? :rage: lol

Samantha's a big grey hair shedding machine, and anytime I wear black it seems to be instantly covered in hair.
435185246_f7fa14cc79.jpg
 

Edward

Bartender
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24,736
Location
London, UK
cooncatbob said:
Samantha's a big grey hair shedding machine, and anytime I wear black it seems to be instantly covered in hair.
435185246_f7fa14cc79.jpg

She's so beautiful, though, I'm sure you could forgive her pretty much anything! Keeping a black hat away from cats is always a good idea - mind you, I'd be wanting to keep anything with a fur content well out of kitty's reach anyhow. Years ago my mother had a pair of slippers with fluff on the front. We figured that they must have been rabbit fur as any time one of the cats got near them, he went ape - biting, scratching, trying to fit the entire thing in his mouth.... lol

Fatwoul, it's likely her sheer feline perversity. Our first cat was black and white, and I'll swear no matter how much he cast, I never found a black hair on a black garment - or white on white. I'm certain cats of more than one colour can selectively shed whichever will contrast the most with the garment it ends up on. But hey, it's that calculated, Maciavellian nature that makes cats lovable, isn't it? ;)

ETA: I've nevder quite managed to figure out the difference between a bowler and a derby - que es?
 

Brad Bowers

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,187
Qwkslvr said:
Edward: I think the difference between Bowler's and Derby's is geography.

I know we've had some debate on here about any physical differences between the two hats, or if it's just as case of nomenclature. If anybody's interested, I thought I'd throw in something from my research.

The following quotation has been attributed to John Cavanagh, who started working for James Knapp sometime in the 1880s, over thirty years after Knapp first produced his derbies. The date I have seen for the first Derby is 1850, the same time as the nascent Bowler. Looks like the style travelled quickly from England, rather than a coincident development. Occam's Razor, and all that.


"The first derby hat made in America was made by James H. Knapp way back when the Crofut & Knapp concern was known as Knapp & Gilliam. In those days the factory products were sold through jobbing houses, and the jobbing house that Knapp & Gilliam sold their goods through was known as Henderson & Bird.
"The story is that some one had seen a stiff hat, a good deal of the character of the square crown hats that were afterward worn by coachmen. This hat Knapp & Gilliam made and took to New York to the jobbers, they in turn taking it to a retail outlet then on lower Broadway, in the vicinity of Ninth Street. They placed an order for a dozen and a half each of brown and black. Mr. Knapp asked for a name for the style, because then, as now, most hats were given a name. An English clerk suggested that they call it the ‘Darby,’ as the English Derby was then on. The hat was so named and afterward by a mispronunciation was known as the ‘derby.’"

If anyone would know the story from Knapp, it would be Cavanagh, who was the best brim curler Knapp had at the time. It was under Knapp's tutelage that Cavanagh became a master hatter.

Brad
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
24,736
Location
London, UK
Thanks, guys. Always helpful to know these terminological differences when it comes to eBay and the likes... (not that I see myself in a bowler/derby anytime soon, but some Halloween I may well finally give in and do the Clockwork Orange costume that's been niggling at me as an idea for a long time. ;) ). :)
 

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