Pine Needle Hat, ca. 1910
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GUEST:
I brought an unusual cap. That's a pine needle cap. I don't know a whole lot about it. Have had it for about 40 years. I bought it in an antique store in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Payne Avenue.
APPRAISER:
Okay.
GUEST:
It wasn't a painful experience, though.
APPRAISER:
Well, that's good to hear.
GUEST:
As I recall, it was about $20 or $25. They didn't know anything about it. As a matter of fact, I bought it to wear. Fortunately, my head was too big. (laughs) And so, it sat, and it sat. We had it on the wall for about ten years, and I put it away in a box, and then I brought it here. There are some initials on the front that indicate it may have been a fire company from some time ago.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, if we look here, it has the... the initials FVFC. I'm not sure what the first initial, but probably "Volunteer Fire Company." So, you're absolutely right.
GUEST:
I think that would be correct, yeah.
APPRAISER:
So this is a really interesting hat and a pretty rare object. Where it was made is probably the coastal Southeast region of America. Now, what's been a lot of debate between me and my colleagues is whether it's from the Gullah region of South Carolina and Georgia...
GUEST:
Mm-hmm.
APPRAISER:
...or is it Native American? So what's really neat is, it's made of pine needles. And if we look at the top here, we see this wonderful coiled effect. And it would have been made probably between about 1900 and 1920. This is a technique that was used for thousands and thousands of years. You see a lot of bowls that are made, but try and go find a hat, and it's extremely rare. Well, it's tough to price an object that you don't find really any comparables of. Bowls? They're, they're pretty abundant. I mean, the Gullah people of South Carolina, they made them as utilitarian objects to help put food on their table. The Native Americans did the same thing. If this were to come to auction, I would conservatively place an estimate of $400 to $600 on it, and I wouldn't be surprised if it went significantly higher.
GUEST:
Hmm, that's, as they say, nice to know.
APPRAISER:
Yeah, you didn't do too bad!
GUEST:
Yeah, I don't think so.
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