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1941.8.290

Smoking cap

1941.8.290

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Collection type
Object
Description
Smoking cap
Cultural groups
English
Date / Period
Date made: Circa 1876-1901
Date collected
By 1941
Acquisition information
Donated: 1941
Object numbers
Accession number: 1941.8.290
Research and responses

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoking_cap: Smoking caps are caps worn while smoking to stop the hair from smelling of smoke. They are similar to the smoking jacket, though their use, even in Victorian times, was not necessarily as widespread.

http://www.antique-lace.com/Gentleman/0635/0635.htm: Style conscious men wore informal indoor caps from the 16th through the late 19th centuries. It was in the 1850s that a new soft form known as a "smoking cap" became all the rage...."The form it took was a cross between the fashionable pillbox and the Turkish fez, and may owe some of its inspiration to the Crimean War....(it) was made the vehicle for every kind of domestic embroidery....and especially the crazes inspired by the East, such as applied Russian braid in scrolling arabesques patterns, with elaborate macramé tassels." (Hats, by Fiona Clark) At the time very popular in America and now rarely seen outside of museum collections. [AP 25/09/2006]

Search terms: Clothing Headgear, Narcotic, Hat

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