Shop Sign
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Object number20917
TitleShop Sign
DescriptionThis curious looking beast is in fact a gilded beaver, the sign from outside a hat and haberdashery shop called Alexanders that stood at 3 King Street, Stirling in the early 19th century. Today, we might ponder the connection between beavers and headwear, but back in 1800 it would have been obvious to anyone wanting a decent hat. Expensive and highly personal, a hat indicated the wearer’s social status and often their occupation.
Felt hats were very much the fashion, good at keeping out the rain at a time when Goretex was still just a pipe dream. The felt was made from fur which was treated with mercury nitrate in a process called carroting. Beaver fur was one of the best, its barbed hairs perfect for the process. As a result, beavers had been hunted to extinction in Scotland by the 1600s, and beaver skins were imported from Scandinavia and later from north America to supply the hatters’ trade.
The fashion for felt hats was as detrimental to the makers as it was to our native species. Exposure to mercury nitrate – a highly poisonous substance – caused employees to develop a variety of physical and mental illnesses. These included speech problems, hallucinations and tremors, the ‘hatter’s shakes.’ This is where the phrase ‘mad as a hatter’ comes from.
Fortunately for both hatters and beavers, felt was replaced by silk as the material of choice for stylish hats in the 1840s. Beavers were re-introduced to Scotland from Scandinavia in 2009, and the project is going well – swimmingly in fact.
Production date 1790 - 1820
MaterialWood