"Did tricorns get smaller?" Topic

Looking at the famous post Culloden painting I noticed that the officer shown with the grenadiers has a hat much smaller than those worn earlier in the century. Some illustrators of the '45 also seem to show a smaller tricorn.

I'm currently contemplating buying some Roundway British who do seem to be wearing smaller tricorns. Is this an accurate depiction or a design flaw?

i may not be correct,but im pretty sure during the french indian war and the seven years war they did cut down the size of tricorns to adapt to the north american terrain. there may be other reasons also,but at this minute thats one that comes to mind

I have the impression that indeed tricornes tend to become smaller along the 18th C., while the coats became shorter and more tightly fitting. For the hats I have the 'feeling' (but no solid data to support it) that it happened mostly between the WSS and the WAS.

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The British tricorne was smaller that it's Rev War decendent, but it was cocked different. You also can't mix uncocked hats/ round hats of the two periods up with the cocked hat/tricorne either as often the uncocked hat was modified by cutting the brim down.

Also, hats were issued once a year, and the size of the new hat could have varied from the old one, so there is no universal rule here.

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All very helpful gents, thank you.

Roundway here I come.

The photo of Captain George Fishley (AWI vet) shows him wearing his hat from the war. To me it appears larger than a lot of the figures produced reflect.
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Yeah they seem to have got bigger again on their way to becoming bicornes.

I read somewhere that Prussian SYW tricorns were relatively small.

The dimensions of Prussian tricorns are given in my new book on Prussian Musketeers of the WAS and 7YW. The tricorn was created from the felt hat of the 1690s that gradually became shaped into the tricorn. By 1780s it had almost become a bicorn. The size did reduce due to cost restraints over the period.
Stephen

See extract of new book
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AICUSV:

If that hat is indeed the one he wore at some point during the war (1775-1783 – a long period of time), then it is most likely a private purchase since he was an officer. It is also most likely a dress hat, given his age its good looking condition. Or, perhaps his last hat before leaving service, which could be as late as 1783, when fashions were starting to change again. Hard to say – but not relative to the F&I period anyway.

I also think that picture is reversed since cockades were ususally worn over the left eye.

Agreed that the picture is reversed – also that it is a dress hat,(class A or dress uniform items seem to be what the vets keep. All the other stuff gets worn out. As to the time period, well I thought the question was, did the hat get smaller over time? So by comparing original hats from the "Age of the"Tricorn" maybe some conclusions could be made.
Anyone have photos of original 1740 to 1760 hats?

Could it be that Fishley's somewhat dessicated appearance in old age skews the relative size of hat to head?