This bonnet and hat are both small and would have perched on the top of the head. To keep them in place the bonnet has ribbons which tied under the chin, and the hat would be pierced by a long hat pin going through the crown from side to side, and also the hair piled on top of the head.
The bonnet is of velvet trimmed with feathers. It was part of an 1887 trousseau. By this time hats were gaining the lead in fashion, an almost conical shape being very stylish. Bonnets continued to be worn to the end of the century by elderly women but only by widows after that.
By 1890 the hat crown was again flat but still perched on the top of the head. Trimmings became increasingly elaborate. Feathers, bows, and flowers, often standing straight up, gave added height and a jaunty air, like the feather pompom on this velvet hat. The hat band is of bead-embroidered ribbon and there is ruching of velvet under the brim. To give some idea of size, the hat crown is only 13 cm wide inside.
