[VOL III] CAP-VENDER’S SHOP, CANTON

CAP-VENDER’S SHOP, CANTON

Cover Image: The Western Gate of Peking / BeiJing China / Drawn by T. Allom Engraved by E.Brandard – ALAMY Image ID:2WXT7N3

*The hat culture of the Qing Dynasty was very diverse, with many different hats representing various social statuses and classes. For example, officials wore round-top hats, civil officials wore long blue hats, and military officials wore short blue hats. These hats had many different variations, such as the gold-trimmed hat and the red-topped hat worn by military officials, etc.

Your bonnet to it’s right use, –
’Tis for the head.

HAMLET.

A CAP-VENDER’S establishment is not unfrequently a scene of gossiping,—a fashionable lounge, a rendezvous of those whose badge is idleness. Open in front, it is decorated with lanterns, and emblems of trade, and inscriptions, the latter setting forth the integrity of the long line of occupants, the quality of goods exclusively issued from that store, the reasonable charges uniformly made, and the total impossibility of trusting to the honour of humanity under certain circumstances. All these sentiments are expressed in characters of gold, on tablets suspended at the side of the open casement. A little railing, partly for protection, but chiefly for ornament and architectural finish, runs along the external edge of the counter, and within it are stands supporting specimen or pattern caps, a practice adopted with ingenuity and taste by the hat and bonnet venders in London and in Paris. Entrance to the shop is often interrupted by a begging bonzee, in a humiliating posture, endeavouring to attract attention by the gentle humming of a familiar hymn, accompanied with the more annoying tap of a small plectrum upon a piece of hollowed wood, in shape resembling a pear.

As the illustration represents a well-known and respectable store in Canton, the style of decoration, attendance, and fitting-up, may be taken as a sample of its class. The goods manufactured and sold here are intended for the wealthy part of the community only, of whom the cap appears to be a special prerogative. Neither Greeks nor Romans wore any covering on the head in the heroic ages of their histories; hence all ancient statues appear either bareheaded, or sometimes with a victor’s wreath: it was at later periods that caps of various kinds, and military helmets, were introduced. It seems tolerably certain, that the Chinese, not many centuries back, went with the head unprotected against either sun or rain, employing, occasionally, the skirt of the robes as a substitute. Indeed, their antique chevelure afforded them most ample protection against the inclemency of the season, and to an economic people possessed an additional recommendation. The preservation of this most useful gift of nature became the subject of a sanguinary civil war, in which Tartar tactics triumphed, and Tartar tyranny used its triumph so ignobly, that the conquered were compelled to shave the head in future, reserving only one lengthened lock, depending from the crown,—the badge of their subjection. Should the season prove intensely sultry, the tapering queue alone adorns the aristocrat’s head; in less warm weather a skull-cap of padded silk is worn; and in still colder, a cap made of the thinnest rattan, slightly woven, having the edge turned up all round. These different descriptions are adapted to summer and winter, to home and out-of-door use. The summer cap most generally worn is a hollow upright cone of bamboo filaments, the apex of which is terminated by a red, blue, white, or gilded ball, or by an opaque button, according to the rank of the wearer. A large lock of red hair, taken from the abdomen of the water-ox, flows from the insertion of the button into the apex; and sometimes a beautiful agate, a lapis lazuli, or gem called yü, sparkles in the frontal border. In winter, the cone is exchanged for a covering of more solid manufacture and more appropriate shape. It is the cap with the turned-up edge. The rattan is more firmly woven in this than in the summer caps, but the ornaments, the button of distinction, and the tuft of hair, are the same as before. At this season, too, especially in the northern provinces, the skull-cap is adopted within doors, and the bamboo pileum without. Almost all the social habits of this ancient people are regulated by imperial decrees, issued arbitrarily at various epochs, and amongst them are rules for the proper, rational, and becoming decoration of the person. These laws enjoin the exchange of the summer for the winter head-dress, and vice versâ; and a broad hint is given to society by the example of the chief mandarin, or magistrate, of every district, as well as by an announcement in the imperial gazette, that the period has arrived when this part of the national costume must undergo the legal change.

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