As to the _form_ of a hat, and what is best for _this face_ or _that person_, there is more in it than what is generally supposed, and a great deal might be said on the subject; but to talk of a _standard fashion_ is absurd in the extreme, in proof of which it need only be observed, that if very large hats were adopted, a thin man of five feet high, would, by the wearing, become as complete a caricature, as a twenty stone man of six feet would by wearing a very small one. The best fashion a man can follow in a hat is that which best becomes him, and various as heads, faces, and persons may be, all things are now accomplished (so far as a hat is concerned) that can either _fit_ the one or ornament the other,
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_Furs used in a Hat of fine quality, according to the present improved system of making, their proportions, value, cost of manufacture, &c. &c._
s. d. per oz. s. d. 4 oz. of seasoned coney wool, 1 0 .. 4 0 ½ oz. red wool 2 4 .. 1 2 ¼ oz. of silk 0 9 .. 0 4½
s. d. per oz. s. d. 1 oz. of prime seasoned beaver 8 6[4] .. 8 6 Journeyman’s wages for making[5] 3 6 Dyeing 0 8 Stiffening, finishing, and picking 1 8 Cost of lining, finding, band, and box 2 6 Sewing in of ditto 0 6 ————— £1 2 10½
No hat can be good, or well covered, with less than one ounce of prime beaver; and, small as the quantity is, there was a time when journeymen makers (catching the custom of their betters, and by way of tythe) thought it no sin to appropriate a part of this material to their _own use_; but, for the credit of the _trade_ be it said, the practice is long since abolished, and a man attempting it at the present day would be scouted from the factory where he worked, by every honest journeyman therein.
The average week’s work of a _maker_ is about ten hats; that of a _finisher_, from five to six dozen.
Such is the cost of materials and labour at the present period; it is true that the above scale is drawn from “credit prices;” but let every part of a manufacturing concern be carried on for money only, which is rarely the case, still the deduction from the _whole_ cannot be more than 7½ per cent. All substitutes for the above _materials_ are decidedly condemned; nor can their _quantities_, as here stated, be lessened, without injury to the remainder. Here then is sufficient evidence that a fine hat must, under the most favourable circumstances, stand the manufacturer in upwards of twenty-one shillings, yet many _assume_ a capability of _retailing_ such an article at less even than the charge of manufacture.