Types of Bonnets?

[MacWage]

After several months of research on this topic, especially after finding a uncaracteristic lack of knowledge on this forum, here is my opinion:

Basis of research:
I looked at every picture I could find of Scots in balmoral/tam-esque headgear. I also sought pictures of musuem pieces, authentic antiques on auction and for sale, and modern reproductions. I looked in books and on-line. I must have studied hundreds and hundreds of pics.

Here is my hypothosis:

I will start with the basic stucture/shape. A flat cap, as I call this class, is basically two round discs attached on the outer edges and some form of headband. This class includes a number of caps that will be detailed below. ALL of them are made of three basic techniques. They are either knitted as one large piece, are “cut and sew” out of woven material, or are made of a woven material that is shaped on a form to give this same shape. The first two seem to be the older forms, as both are relatively easy to make. The third, which is the form in which most modern balmorals are made, but is not as easy for a do-it-yourselfer to create and is easier to buy than to make. For the sake of simplicity (and as there have been several recent threads -August 2006- on bonnet making using this construction style), I will describe the cap-types using the cut-and-sew technique. See threads:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=20569
and
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=20410

There are three basic pieces to a cut-and-sew: a top circle, a bottom circle (shaped like a large doughnut), and a headband. Below will refer to these three parts, usually as “circle part” (top two) and headband. To this basic core, a balmoral adds a toorie (that ball on top), a ribbon (commonly in the back on modern ones), and a cockade (the ribbon and badge on the left temple).

The flat caps fall into several classes:
The simplest of these is now known as a “beret” and is common on the world’s militaries. It is shaped as the circle part with very little to NO headband. Often the bottom circle is made into a cone shape. Modern ones are commonly edged with a leather headband just around the inside edge of the inside doughnut of the bottom circle.

A Bluebonnet, or the old Scots Bonnet, is basically a large beret. Most reproductions seem to be 13-15 inches in diameter, but some in old portraits MUST be much larger to look and lay the way they are portrayed. Most of the ones I could find seem to be made with a SMALL headband that was made as a sleeve to hold a ribbon, which served as a sizer/adjuster. This headband seems to be as small as a half inch on some (barely visible) to 1 or 1 1/2 inches. Most seem to be more of 1 inch range, from my best estimate and numerous emails and phone calls. Most were a shade of blue, which is where the name “bluebonnet” comes from, BUT others look black (may have been navy) are are a brown, green, or red. The red seems to have been mostly worn by nobles and chiefs, as red was a status thing (as all-red belted plaids are often worn by the same people, and probably portrayed as such in a status-display). On this cap, a symbol was sometimes added to signify allegience (like the white ribbons of the Jacobites and the black of the government) or sides in a clan battle (in the form of clan plant badges that were pinned onto the cap. Otherwise, they were worn bare. The toorie was generally absent on cut-and-sown caps and a small twist used to finish the knitting, or a very small ball.

The Tam is a modernized bluebonnet. They are made in dimensions like modern balmorals, meaning a 10-11 inch diameter for the circle part. The headbands are usually in the 1 inch range. The older knitted versions were sometimes made in a coloring to resemble the tartan, much like Argyle socks. Other times, they were made in tartan material either in two circles OR sections (like a modern ballcap). This last one (sectioned) is what most modern tams are made to be. The name “tam” is derived from a Burns poem about a man named Tam O’Shanter who was walking on a road and saw witches in a dance/celebration/brew-ha-ha, hid, and then made himself known when he showed is appreciation for a young witch’s exposed “woman-ness.” The witches gave chase, and Tam (Tom, transliterated into Scots) escaped by crossing bridge. The illustrations published with the poem showed Tam in an exaggerated bluebonnet, which adopted his name, to differenciate it from the balmoral that comes next. Torries are now almost always present on tams. In my opinion, tams DO NOT need to be lined, and I prefer mine unlined, just as I do most of my other caps.

A balmoral is basically a more formalized tam. They are generally sized to fit a specific headsize. The ribbons are reduced to a decoration on the rear of the cap! The ribbons that were woven in and out of the threads of the knitted bluebonnets were formalized in the military checked portion on the headband. Overall, the hat was stiffened and cockades and unit emblems were added at the left temple. In civilian usage, the unit cockade and badge was replaced with a general black cockade, or on in livery colors, and a clan badge. Tams seem to have shrunk somewhat from their earliest form into what we now know and love. The one-piece construction ones have a pronounced headband, but is hard to measure, as it mutates onto the top part at no particular point. The checked part (on ones so made) seems to provide a height to 2 inches bottom edge to top of checks. Non-checked ones have a lower headband, but I have been unable to guestimate just how much. In my reproductions in cut and sew, I have experimented in headband heights and 1 inch resembles the bluebonnets and tams well, but is much to low for a balmoral. Yet, three inches looks ridiculous. The 2.25 STILL looks to flat on top, though some have told me success at that height. I’d say that the bare minimal headband is 1.5 inches, but that is on the low-low side. The ideal for the shape and laying of the circle part seems to be 1.75-2 inches to make a balmoral. The main shaping element on a balmoral is a stiffener on the inside (between the wool and lining) used to stiffen the badge and cockade area to make a nice (non-droppy) unit insignia display. (On a side note, modern military berets have a stiffener, sometimes in plastic, to serve the same purpose.)

OF NOTE-> many modern caps sold as tams are really just one-size-fits-all balmorals with a soft circle part and an elastic headband. My first “balmoral” was one of these. It is better called a “non-stiff” balmoral. They are balmorals in general structure, but lack the stiffened and fitted headband and badge stiffener.

That lead me to the Irish Caubeen. In structure, they are very, very similar to a balmorals, but without the toorie, ribbons. or any headband trim. They are rather close in proportions. Some have told me that the caubeen has a narrower headband and a balmoral has a wider one, BUT on cut-and-sew ones, they seem to have ALOT of overlap with the vast majority in the overlap range of 1.5 to 2 inches. Most tell me that a Caubeen is taller in headband BUT: One balmoral seller told me caubeens had 1 inch headbands (which all I’ve seen are larger than that), while a caubeen seller told me balmorals would be 2.5 to 3 inches (which is WAY to big and produces a wool chef’s hat). A caubeen may be a tad taller, but it CAN'T be my much!
I wonder is the caubeens are a remnant of the balmoral wearing highlander units stationed in Ireland or along side Irish ones. I wonder if the Irish adopted an “Irish” version of the balmoral, suitably modified to make it uniquely Irish (and gave it an Irish name).

The last type is a driving cap, commonly called a “flat-cap.” To me, it looks like a bonnet pulled forward and attached to a stiff bill. I have no proof of a connection, but the early ones are shaped VERY baggy and have a band and one I’ve seen even has ribbons in back and a toorie. I don’t know it this was the owner’s modification OR an early form. One thematic tie is that early motorists were the SAME who would go to Victorian Scotland for kilted sport hunts and play golf in similar, but more obviously tam-based caps. A “sporting” connection between hunts, golf, and motoring seems logical. As for me, I am planning on making a tam and a driving cap out of extra tartan wool (out of the same material as my kilts) in Caledonia, as well as a matching scarf. Tartan explosion,HERE I COME (kilt, tam/driving cap, and scarf in matching Caledonia :rolleyes: )!!!!!

Hoping the above is informative,