THE ANTIQUE
Hat Boxes
In days gone by, hats were considered an essential part of both male and female garb. It follows that boxes for keeping them in good shape and safe from moths were part of the paraphernalia of a well-equipped wardrobe, and they came in the form of leather cases, vellum cases, bentwood boxes and workaday metal boxes. These days, the box you’ll see most at auction is the late 19th or early 20th-century, tan leather ‘bucket’ hat box, which often held a top hat (sometimes, there’s still a top hat inside), or very deep ones held several hats at once. These can be found at provincial sales from £50 upwards, rising into the high hundreds of pounds for top-quality examples; monograms add to the cachet and might even match the initials of your own name. You’ll
