Bowler hat

Producer: James Lock and Company Ltd

Date: 1910-1915

Accession number: 2000.188/15a

Place made: 6 St James's Street, London SW1

Measurements: internal circumference 55.5cm; H of crown 11cm

The bowler or coke hat had started out in the 19th century as a practical working man's hat. By the 1920s it had risen up the social scale to become a 'posh' hat for city businessmen or working class men with pretensions - as worn by Charlie Chaplin in his films. This hat was worn by Major H.F. Browell of Merrow House, Guildford. It was made by James Lock and Company Ltd., of St. James's Street, hatmakers in Lodnon since 1676. Locks first developed the bowler hat in conjunction with their felt supplier, William Bowler & Co. of Southwark.