[ Fashion ]

Stratnoid Hat Pins [cover title]. [Salesman’s sample with original hatpins.]

[Birmingham, England: Stratnoid (later Stratton & Co.), n.d., ca. 1910.]. Folding triptych display (8” x 11”). With thirteen original Stratnoid silver hatpins (nickel-plated), eight with attached printed paper labels (“Stratnoid Untarnishable heads”). Also with three mounted illustrated advertisements for hatpin stands and sets of pins: the Collapsible Junior Stand, the Collapsible Senior Stand, and the De Luxe Collapsible Stand. A paper strip, labeled in manuscript, identifies which pins are part of the Junior, Senior, or De Luxe Stand sets. With spaces for the fifteen other hat pins in the set (not present). Cracking and wear to joints and some chipping to leather. Some rubbing to extremities. Pins stuck into blue velvet pad with sheet of protective felt. Some foxing to felt and some light toning inside. A very good copy of a rare item. Three board panels with two cloth spines connecting boards. Bound in dark blue leather with gilt title. Item #16878

Stratnoid, or Stratton and Company after 1920, was founded in 1860 as a producer of knitting needles. By the twentieth century, the company was a major producer of powder compacts, lipstick holders, jewelry, hat pins, and other metal accessories. Business boomed in the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras as actresses like Lillie Langtry and Lillian Russell began wearing large, elaborate hats secured with pins. b b b The hatpins in the present item feature the special Stratnoid Untarnishable heads, which were warrantied for ten years and were designed in a variety of shapes like a stylized golf club, an acorn, and more. The collapsible stands would have been used to display the pins in women’s stores and millinery shops.

OCLC records no copies. Williams, Sheila. The History of Knitting Pin Gauges (2006), pp. 52-53.

Price: $450.00