LOCK & CO. HERITAGE

In 1800, Admiral Lord Nelson visits Lock & Co. for the first time to order a "cocked hat and cockade 7 1/8th full" - his signature bicorne complete with eyeshade. He returns in subsequent years to order two more. His last visit is recorded in September 1805, when he settles his account before sailing for Spain. He would never return, losing his life in the Battle of Trafalgar.

In 1806, James Lock dies and his illegitimate son, George James Lock, also known as James Lock II, inherits the business.

Incidentally, this image was created by Ronald Searle immediately after the Second World War, and he then went on to become famous after that.

In the early nineteenth century, the fashionable continue to flock to Lock & Co. and in 1808, dandy of the day, Beau Brummell, purchases two round hats.

In 1821, the ownership of Lock & Co. passes from James Lock II to his son, James Lock III, who takes over the business with his younger brother, George.

The year is 1849 and nobleman Edward Coke commissions Lock & Co. to design a hat for his gamekeepers. Locks, in turn, commissions one of their most reliable suppliers, Thomas Bowler & Son, to make it. The result is the now iconic Coke hat or Bowler hat.

The fashion having changed to the wearing of much harder hats – top hats, and Coke hats – it became very important to fit them to the actual shape of a customer’s head, precision and personalisation entered the world of millinery when Allié-Maillard invented the conformateur in France, a device for measuring the head. The device allows the hatter to measure the size and shape of a person's head so that a custom-made hat fits perfectly on the head. Lock & Co. still uses a conformateur to fit hard hats.

Hat Sizing

In 1861, as a mark of mourning for the death of Prince Albert, gentlemen wear a black band on their hats. It eventually loses its association with the funeral and becomes a fashion statement.

“You can draw water out of a water-well," said the Hatter; "so I should think you could draw treacle out of a treacle-well - eh, stupid?" (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). In 1865, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland under the pen name, Lewis Carroll. Some claim that James Benning, the shop manager of James Lock III, inspired Sir John Tenniel’s famous illustration of the memorable character of the Mad Hatter., as seen above.

In 1871, James Lock III was seventy years old and single. To secure the family business after his death, he had already invited his sister's son, Charles Whitbourn, to join the business. However, he also recognised that his shop manager, James Benning, had good business sense and in 1871 he formed a partnership between 'Charley' Whitbourn and James Benning and handed the business over to them. James Lock III then married (for the first time) and had a daughter two years later. He died in 1876 leaving the business secure and his family well provided for.

In 1882, Lock & Co. sold a black fedora to the flamboyantly dressed and witty writer, Oscar Wilde. He wore the hat on his lecture tour of the United States. Later in life, Wilde was unable to pay his final hat bill due to his incarceration in Pentonville and Wandsworth prisons. Following an article in The Times in 2000, one of Wilde's loyal followers sends a letter to Lock & Co. enclosing a cheque for £3.30 to settle his account over 100 years later.

See our Fedoras