Excerpts from:
THE MODERN CONJURER
AND DRAWING-ROOM ENTERTAINER
BY
C. LANG NEIL (1903)
The Art of Chapeaugraphy
or
Many Faces under One Hat

(Illustrated by photographs of Mons. Trewey, the great French entertainer, who perfected and made popular this accomplishment, which is suitable for amateurs of either sex; also several photographs of Mdlle. Patrice.)

THE art of making a number of shapes of hats out of the brim of a felt hat dates back to the year 1750. Tabarin, a French comedian, it is recorded in a book of that date, performed the feat of making some ten different hats, giving appropriate facial portraits beneath each, and using wigs and beards and the usual actor’s make ups in order to emphasize the various characters.

In the year 1870, Mons. Fusier, one of the cleverest of French comedian imitators, revived the “Exercise of the Hat,” and he, also using make-up and wigs, gave some fifteen different character portraits with the felt ring.

It was in the following year, 1871, that Mons. Trewey, happening to be engaged at the Eldorado Theatre at the same time as Fusier, saw him give his performance, and slight and unfinished as it was, the quick judgment and fertile brain of Trewey took a note of it and its possibilities as an attractive item of entertainment. So it was 1875 before Trewey practised, and with considerable perseverance produced some thirty-two to thirty-five differently shaped hats. He also decided that, to make it a real artistic success, all the different faces of the various characters beneath the hats must be created by the pantomime of the performer’s features, without a make-up of any kind. His performance was an immediate success, and led to engagements all over France...

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Excerpt from:
MORE NOVEL NOTIONS FOR Magical Entertainers.
BY
ROBERTSON KEENE (c. 1907)
Originally Published by: A. W. Gamage, Ltd., Holborn, E.C. LONDON

A LESSON IN HAT MANIPULATION

The drawback to all the articles on this subject, which I have ever seen, is, undoubtedly, want of clearness and simplicity both in the written instruction and also in the illustrations.

I have tried to combine in the present short article clear and unmistakable instructions with a simple method of illustration, showing clearly, by means of plain line drawings and A.B.C. lettering, how each hat may be turned into the one next in order to it, in a simple and unmistakable manner. If I have succeeded in this endeavour, I shall feel well repaid for a somewhat arduous and intricate task.

Instructions.

Having purchased your “hat” (from a reliable firm—Gamage’s recommended), which consists simply of a ring of felt with a beautiful circular “nothing” in the middle, your first “manipulation” will be the work of softening it, which is best done by heating it before a fire and subsequently maltreating it by jumping on it, crushing it into a ball, and, in fact, doing anything and everything with it short of tearing it apart altogether!

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These two books together will give the beginner in Chapeaugraphy an excellent start, but it takes Eleazar's imagination to bring them up to date and into the 21st Century.

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