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A Biberhut or Bieber Hit (Biber is the German word for beaver) is a hat worn by some Ashkenazi Jewish men, mainly members of Hasidic Judaism. Two variations exist; the Flache (flat) Bieber Hat, which is mainly worn by adherents of Satmar Hasidim and some Yerushalmi Jews, and the Hoiche (tall) Bieber Hat also referred to as the Polish Hat, worn by most other Hasidic Jews.
By 1886, Stetson's hat company was the largest globally and had mechanized the hat-making industry ("producing close to 2 million hats a year by 1906"). [2] The Stetson Hat Co. ceased production in 1968 and licensed another hat company. [2] However, these hats still bear the Stetson name, with the hats produced in St. Joseph, Missouri.
Eventually, traders began using various foreign coins as stores of value. In order to trade with Indigenous peoples, the HBC standardized the unit of account as the made beaver, or one high quality beaver skin. In 1795, a made beaver could buy eight knives, one kettle, or a gun could be purchased with 10 made beaver pelts. [2]
The fishermen traded metal items for beaver robes made of sewn-together, native-tanned beaver pelts. They used the robes to keep warm on the long, cold return voyages across the Atlantic. These castor gras (in French) became prized by European hat makers in the second half of the 16th century, as they converted the pelts to felt. [5]
The original fur-felt hat was waterproof and shed rain. Overall, the hat was durable and lightweight. [2] On the underside, the hat included a sweatband, a lining to protect the hat, [3] and, as a memorial to earlier designs, a bow on its sweatband, which had the practical purpose of helping distinguish the front from the back. The original ...
Beaver tails were thus highly prized in Europe; they were described by French naturalist Pierre Belon as tasting like a "nicely dressed eel". [129] Beaver pelts were used to make hats; felters would remove the guard hairs. The number of pelts needed depended on the type of hat, with Cavalier and Puritan hats requiring more fur than top hats. [130]
The hats can be categorized into three types: [1] Qayaatx̂ux̂ (eastern Aleut dialect): meaning “chief’s hat, decorated, closed top, long wooden hat”. [5] This was a closed crown, conical hat with long-billed front; it has also been classified as “classic Aleut” by some ethnographers.
Beaver was most desired and used to make hats which became popular headpieces, especially during wartime. Swedish soldiers wore broad-brimmed hats made exclusively from beaver felt. Due to the limitations of beaver fur, hat-makers relied heavily on North America for imports as beaver was only available in the Scandinavian peninsula. [6]