What is the bicorn hat?

I recently posted an item about Pirate Day. The Character was wearing a Bicorn Hat (sometimes known as a Bicorne Hat). The picture above is a late 19th century engraving of Frederick the Great in the 18th century riding his wonderful horse. It is the original design (I guess you might call it bicorne classic) with a very large brim turned up and pinned at the side front.

This two cornered hat was worn in the eighteenth century, mainly by the military – army and navy officers but also others like pirate captains! It was developed from the well known tricorn hat that you would have seen worn by the American colonists in the War of Independence. The tricorne is a three cornered hat which was actually worn by some into the 19th century. You will notice that the bicorne hat is worn side to side in the picture shown. There is another variant of this type of hat known as the Cocked Hat where a similar hat is worn from to back to front rather than side by side. You may have seen pictures of British naval Officers from the 18th century wearing hats that way.

As you may be aware there were some pretty large wigs being worn in the 18th century and hats were a problem. The bicorn hat was designed to be tucked under the arm when not worn. Indeed, given the wig wearing of the age there was a version of the hat just designed to be carried under the arm and not actually worn. A bicorne of this type was sometimes known as a chapeau-bras or chapeau-de-bras.

Tagged as: Bicorn, bicorne, cocked hat, eighteenth century, Frederick the Great, German history, Horse, Horses