SOLD An extremely rare museum quality authentic antique Polish Napoleonic Military Hat Rogatywka, most likely a hat of an officer of the Pospolitego Ruszenia Wojewodztwa Sierackiego. The second known example of this particular model of hat is in Museum of the Polish Army (Muzeum Wojska Polskiego) in Warsaw, and is published in the book-catalog of the exhibition, “Napoleon i Polacy†by Macyszyn Jacek, Page 91. And also in the book “I PODAJE WIEK WIEKOWI†.Page 200 No.585 .The buyer will be provided with a copy of the pages from the mentioned references, together with the certificate of authenticity.
DETAILS: Constructed of leather, cardboard, and cloth, which was originally of light blue color, but is now completely faded, the actual blue color can be seen only in some small areas. The top of the hat is festooned with crossed silver bullion thread cord, which extends to the four side corners of the hat. The front of the hat is with a hanging, finely woven and braided, silver bullion thread chain, affixed on the top by two wire hooks. The rim of the side is with its original brass plume socket, fastened by brass domed pins, which is exactly as on the hat in the Polish Museum collection. A leather band with remains of its original brass scale chinstrap, on leather lining, secured by large embossed buttons. The interior is complete with its original full leather lining, and sweat band.
CONDITION: Well used, the fabric is completely faded and worn, absence of the visor, and the fabric on the band, the sweatband shows wear from routine field use, the leather lining is damaged, and the bullion cord is worn. I do believe that the stitches on the exterior of the fabric were later added to prevent the folding down of the fabric, which most likely was originally glued to the hat, as shown on the hat at the Museum of the Polish Army. To protect the hat from deformation, the previous owner had made of cardboard, leather, and Styrofoam, a supporting construction, which can be easily removed since it is not glued to the hat, but is just holding by pressure.
Considering the age and material, and that the hat is in its original condition free of restorations, as new elements, the item can be classified as in reasonable condition. All antiques are sold in the condition as acquired, we do not perform any restorations, but leave the decision regarding restoration to the future buyer.
MEASUREMENTS: Height: From the base of the hat to the highest point: 24 cm (9 1/2 in), overall length from the rear to the front corner: 32 cm (12 5/8 in).
We try to describe items exactly as we see them, and include as many good pictures as needed, so a buyer knows exactly what they are getting. We ask that buyers please look at the pictures carefully.
Please note that this hat is rarer than the hats of the famous Polish Napoleon guard lancers, of which there are many in museums and private collections, this is the second world-wide known example of this hat, only except for the one at the Polish museum.
Rogatywka is sometimes translated as peaked cap, a Polish generic name for an asymmetrical, peaked, four-pointed cap used by various Polish military formations throughout the ages. It is a distant relative of its 18th century predecessor, konfederatka, because of the use by members of the Bar Confederation. It consists of a four-pointed top, and a short peak. Although rogatywka (derived from rog = horn, corner) in English seems to mean the same as czapka - schapska.
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