HATS OFF TO VERMEER

Our good friend, Professor Sir William (as he is known to his friends) passed along his Sunday Times Book Reviews which he puts aside for us every week. Having time to read through them in these quiet days, I was fascinated by John Carey's review of Vermeer's Hat: The Seventeenth Century and the Dawn of the Global World.

In his opening sentence Carey says that the book is not about Vermeer...and it is spell-binding! Basically, the book is about the Dutch trade with China in the 17th century. It includes the story of how the Dutch, and the French and the British, headed toward North America in order to fulfil the demand for the raw material for a 'fashion' item, namely, beaver pelts for making hats. (By this time the European and Scandinavian beaver had become extinct.)

These beaver pelts were obtained (i.e. traded) from the natives and in so doing it opened up the continent as the traders navigated the river systems on their trade routes. Yes, explorers were also looking for China but it is the quest for beaver pelts that interests me.

In British Columbia, Canada, I, along with every other school child, learned the history of the fur trade. However, somewhere along the way I do not recall ever being taught what these (beaver pelt) 'hats' actually looked like! I know that it was not a Davy Crocket hat as that was something I learned about later; it was American and also made from raccoon.

This photograph of the Vermeer painting of The Officer and the Laughing Girl explains it all. The hats were these wide-brimmed, high-crowned fashion items worn by men. (Frans Hal's Laughing Cavalier is another example.)

I would imagine that they must have been quite a statement of wealth (and social standing?) too.

Now, as it happens someone asked me today to give them information about Alastair and the Vancouver Film School. When I googled VFS I got exactly what I wanted here.

I read that the Film School is very much in demand for teaching graphcs and film and all that but I felt there was a little Je ne sais quoi needed for one particular member of staff!