Book review: the Dutch hatmakers

Summer always brings a raft of book reviews on this blog, of titles which have piled up during the theatre season & academic year.

I received this book as a gift from a colleague aware of my personal & academic interest in historical populations of the hat trade. It’s a relatively short book at 153 pages, dense with text at a small font size. It has an extensive bibliography of topical primary sources. The volume is mostly text, but does feature a few black-&-white illustrations, mostly reproductions of maps & lithographs.

The book is published by an imprint called Boydell Press, but it strikes me as very similar in structure & interior layout to titles available through Dover Publications.

The Dutch Hatmakers of Late Medieval and Tudor London offers a glimpse into the history of the Dutch artisans who revolutionized the hatmaking craft in England during the late medieval & Tudor periods.

Back in those days, a band of talented hatmakers from the Low Countries moved to London. They brought with them entirely new techniques & tech that the English hadn't seen before, & they were the first to make brimmed felt hats in England. Their hats quickly became a hit with everyone from nobility to the everyday people.

Even though they were successful, the Dutch hatmakers had a tough time. London's economy often made it hard or even impossible for them to make and sell their hats. Wanting to stay independent from the local guilds, they set up their own assemblage called the Hatmakers' Fraternity of St James. This group lasted for about ten years until 1511, when the royal council forced them to join the powerful London Haberdashers' Company.

During their short time on their own, the Hatmakers' guild wrote rules in both English and Dutch to regulate hatmaking in London. These rules, now kept in the London Guildhall Library, show how these Dutch craftsmen managed their lives as immigrants, balancing their craft with the social and language challenges they faced every day.

This book not only highlights the lives and writings of these hatmakers but also offers a modern edition of the Hatmakers' guild book. The Dutch Hatmakers of Late Medieval and Tudor London is an esoteric book of admittedly niche appeal, but I’m solidly in that niche.