Keep Your Hat On: Collecting Antique Hatpins

1860's figural 14k gold hat pin made in the form of a General's presentation sword quillon

One of the things that I like about history is that it puts the ridiculousness of the modern world in perspective.  I’ve been reading The Grapes of Wrath lately (I don’t know how it took me this long either…) and wow, Steinbeck is almost prophetic in his discussions about unions and economy and our fate after being disconnected from the land.  When I feel like the world can’t possibly go on in this crazy fashion for long without imploding, it comforts me to read about things like McCarthyism and Hoovervilles and hatpins.

That’s right, hatpins.  You think the world is crazy now?  In 1908, legislation was actually passed at the state level – in multiple states! – regarding the length of women’s hatpins.  (You could have a hatpin that exceeded the legal permissible length; you just needed to apply for a permit first.)  Why the sudden concern with the lowly, unobtrusive hatpin?  Because those crazy suffragettes might use them as a weapon!  I’m completely serious – I couldn’t make this stuff up.

It’s kind of hard to imagine the kind of woman who would wear a “Puss in Boots” hatpin using it to put someone’s eye out.  I think you’d probably want to be much warier of someone with a griffin or a bear.  (And, of course, a woman who could afford the Tiffany examples pictured above could pay someone else to poke your eyes out….)  Regardless, hatpins offer a variety of beautiful display opportunities today, and they’re popular with collectors.  Because women at virtually all levels of society wore them, you can find them at virtually all price points (although it’s likely that as hats declined in fashion that many hatpins were either cut down or reworked into other pieces of jewelry for every-day wear) and in a range from simple to elaborate.  So keep an eye out (wrong expression maybe…) because valuable ones frequently end up unidentified and mixed in with miscellaneous boxes of jewelry!

-By Hollie Davis, Senior Editor, p4A.com