18th Century Women’s Hats

This primarily deals with broad hats, especially straw hats. (Calashes and bonnets can be found elsewhere on this site; caps may be added as separate linkspages at a later date.)

• Met 1998.230, wool and silk, Germany, c. 1720-1750
• Met 2006.588, silk (covered straw hat?), Italy, c. 1720-1750
• LACMA M.82.8.8, a bergére in silk, wood, paper, and silk tulle, England, c. 1750
• Met C.I.69.15.1, straw bergére, Britain
• Met 13.49.35, Britain
• V&A T.90-2003, Britain, c. 1750-1770; “feathers of common origin, such as those from cocks or guinea fowl, dyed in a variety of colours for a vivid effect.” A similar hat is worn by a girl in V&A 833-1873 (“Head of a Girl Wearing a White Hat” by William Hoare).
• Met 1984.140, raffia hat trimmed with silk, Britain, c. 1760; good detail of the inside of the hat, where the ribbons are attached
• V&A 158-1865, Italy or England, 1760s; “embroidered with straw-work flowers on crown and around brim; wreath of straw flowers around crown”
• Met 1997.369, made of paper, straw, silk, and linen, Britain, c. 1760-1770

Dutch women’s straw hats

Note the use of fabric (often chintz) lining on the interior only, and (in some cases) a D-shape to the brim.

• Christie’s Lot 320, Sale 5422, a fine straw and chintz hat, D-shaped chipstraw lined with a red chintz print and wrapping over to the brim
• Met C.I.45.2
• V&A IS.23-1976, a piece of chintz used to line a wide-brimmed straw hat worn by the women of Friesland
• Meg Andrews 7141, a straw hat lined with blue silk brocade, Zeeland, c. 1780
• Meg Andrews 7120, a straw hat lined with chintz, Zeeland, 1780s

Depictions of 18th century women’s straw hats

This is just intended as a survey, rather than a complete list of every example possible; it provides further ideas for shape and ornamentation.

• Evelyn Byrd, c. 1725-1726
• Girl with pigeons by Antoine Pesne, 1728
• Detail from Moll Hackabout arrives in London by William Hogarth, 1731-1732
• Conversation in a park by Thomas Gainsborough, c. 1740
• From Joseph Highmore’s paintings for Pamela, c. 1743-1744: Pamela shows Mr Williams a hiding place for her letters, Pamela leaves Mr B’s house in Bedfordshire
• Lucy Ebberton by George Knapton, c. 1745-1750
• Mr. and Mrs. Andrews by Thomas Gainsborough, 1748-1749
• Portrait of a woman in a straw hat by Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich, mid-18th century
• The Reaper (Allegory of Summer) by Christian Wilhelm Ernst Dietrich
• The Gravenor Family by Thomas Gainsborough, c. 1752-1754
• Nelly O’Brien by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1762-1764
• High Life Below Stairs by John Collet, 1763
• Mrs. Nathaniel Allen (Sarah Sargent) by John Singleton Copley, c. 1763
• Hannah Loring by John Singleton Copley, 1763
• Mary, Countess of Howe by Thomas Gainsborough, 1764
• Drawing of a young woman by Catherine Louise de Saint-Aubin, 1764
• Mrs. Samuel Barrett (Mary Clarke) by John Singleton Copley, c. 1765-1770
• A girl singing ballads by Henry Robert Morland, c. 1765-82
• Madame Bergeret by François Boucher, c. 1766
• A series of prints showing the months of the year, 1767
• Mrs. Elizabeth Brownrigg, 1767
• The Female Bruisers by John Collet, 1768
• Miss Mary Hickey by Sir Joshua Reynolds, 1770
• Beggars on the road to Stanmore by Johann Joseph Zoffany
• Mrs. Oswald by Johann Joseph Zoffany, c. 1770
• A Scene in Covent Garden, Or the Modern Bloods Kicking up a Dust, 1772
• The Contented Cobler, 1772
• Rural Happiness, Health, Felicity, and Contentment, 1773
• The Enraged Macaroni, 1773
• Miss Returning from a Visit, or Thomas Fording a Brook with his Mistress
• The Colmore Family by Johann Joseph Zoffany
• Twelve fashionable Head Dresses of 1775 from The Ladies Own Memorandum Book
• Girl buying a ballad by Henry Walton, 1778
• The sailor's present, or, The jealous clown by John Collet, 1778
• The Manchester hero, or, Arts yield to arms by John Collet, 1778
• The old ballad-singer, 1779
• The Sharp Family by Johan Joseph Zoffany, 1779-1781
• A lady and her children relieving a cottager by William Redmore Bigg, 1781
• The Promenade, 1781
• Detail of Elisabeth Philippine Marie Hélène de France by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1782
• Self-portrait in a straw hat by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, after 1782
• Rural life, 1783
• Marie Antoinette by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1783
• Antoinette-Elisabeth-Marie d’Aguesseau, Countess de Ségur by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1785
• The Vicomtesse de Vaudreuil by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1785
• Self-Portrait with Two Pupils, Mademoiselle Marie Gabrielle Capet and Mademoiselle Carreaux de Rosemond by Adélaïde Labille-Guiard, 1785
• Lady Sheffield by Thomas Gainsborough, 1785-1786
• Anne Bingham by Joshua Reynolds, 1786
• Madame Molée-Reymond by Elisabeth Vigée-Le Brun, 1786
• Miss Constable by George Romney, 1787
• Mrs. Wells by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1787-1788
• Comtesse de la Châtre (Marie Louise Perrette Aglaé Bontemps by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, 1789
• Duchess de Polignac by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, c. 1789
• Lady Bess Foster by Sir Joshua Reynolds, c. 1789
• Portrait of a young woman by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun, c. 1797