Wealthy Europeans wore felt hats made of beaver fur before the North American fur trade began. Felting, a process of matting wool or hair, predates weaving or spinning and was known in many parts of the world. Felt is stronger than woven material because fibres are interlocked in all directions and will not tear in a straight line. Felt is also more impervious to water. Beaver was the favoured fur for making felt hats because it was durable, waterproof and had a high sheen. European beaver were nearly extinct by the late sixteenth century, thus increasing the demand for North American beaver fur. The finest felt hats were made entirely of beaver fur; less expensive hats of a mixture of wool and beaver; and cheaper hats entirely of wool. In Western Europe hat making was a skilled trade by the fifteenth century, albeit a hazardous one as "hatter's shakes", caused by slow poisoning from nitrate of mercury used in one of the stages of preparation, was quite common. After the fur was removed from the pelt it was shaped into a batt which was pressed onto a piece of linen
(a) and rolled up in a piece of leather
(b). Two batts were unrolled from the leather and folded together in the shape of a large dunce cap
(c). In the case of hats made of material other than beaver, a lap of beaver was added at this point. A lap was an outer layer of fur worked into the hat body by moistening and rolling. The hat was now ready for shaping. The "dunce cap" rolled up on itself to form a flat, circular piece of felt
(d) which was pressed over an appropriately-shaped wooden block
(e). Finally the hat was trimmed, brushed, dried, dyed and stiffened with a coating of shellac or glue. Styles changed but until the advent of silk in the 1830s beaver felt remained the standard for a high quality hat.
