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Can anyone identify the animal used for this fur hat and the style it’s stitched?

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user 51569

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See attached images. What kind of hat is this? Looks like it’s got a long tail to one side hanging in front of the shoulder and partial cape on the back. Is this a certain known style?
 

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That's Brad Pitt's natural hair grown out for the movie part and styled up to fit the part, if I'm not mistaken...

Leonardo dicaprio but same difference

I want to know what rifle used in that movie, looked like a brown bess but a little different.
 
Based on the face (on the hat, not Leo...) in the third and fifth pictures, I think probably badger:

American-badger.jpg


The wardrobe team may have based that on the headgear worn by this Assiniboine man:

Bodmer-Pasesick-Kaskutau.jpg


He was described by the artist, Karl Bodmer, as wearing a head cover of badger skin. They did take great pains in that movie's production to get things as authentic as they reasonably could.

The Assiniboine man appears to have little dangles or tassels of some kind coming off the cap at the temple. Leo seems to have some ratty looking feathers in the same place.

Maybe its time for another Revenant thread... it has been several months. My only real beef with historical aspects of the movie was in showing the US Army destroying a Pawnee village, which never happened. The Pawnees did steal some horses and attack a few wagon trains, but they were never at war with the United States, and in fact the Pawnee scouts were employed by the US Army during the Sioux Indian Wars. The other thing they got wrong was the reference to the Texas Rangers. I don't think they were formed until about 1825. We might as well also point out that Glass was attacked by the grizzly on the Grand River in South Dakota in much warmer weather. I enjoyed the movie, though.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob
 
Based on the face (on the hat, not Leo...) in the third and fifth pictures, I think probably badger:

View attachment 98013

The wardrobe team may have based that on the headgear worn by this Assiniboine man:

View attachment 98014

He was described by the artist, Karl Bodmer, as wearing a head cover of badger skin. They did take great pains in that movie's production to get things as authentic as they reasonably could.

The Assiniboine man appears to have little dangles or tassels of some kind coming off the cap at the temple. Leo seems to have some ratty looking feathers in the same place.

Maybe its time for another Revenant thread... it has been several months. My only real beef with historical aspects of the movie was in showing the US Army destroying a Pawnee village, which never happened. The Pawnees did steal some horses and attack a few wagon trains, but they were never at war with the United States, and in fact the Pawnee scouts were employed by the US Army during the Sioux Indian Wars. The other thing they got wrong was the reference to the Texas Rangers. I don't think they were formed until about 1825. We might as well also point out that Glass was attacked by the grizzly on the Grand River in South Dakota in much warmer weather. I enjoyed the movie, though.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob
This the info I’m lookin for thanks man. Probably my favorite movie. I’m a western artist so always love when art is used to record history.
 
Based on the face (on the hat, not Leo...) in the third and fifth pictures, I think probably badger:

View attachment 98013

The wardrobe team may have based that on the headgear worn by this Assiniboine man:

View attachment 98014

He was described by the artist, Karl Bodmer, as wearing a head cover of badger skin. They did take great pains in that movie's production to get things as authentic as they reasonably could.

The Assiniboine man appears to have little dangles or tassels of some kind coming off the cap at the temple. Leo seems to have some ratty looking feathers in the same place.

Maybe its time for another Revenant thread... it has been several months. My only real beef with historical aspects of the movie was in showing the US Army destroying a Pawnee village, which never happened. The Pawnees did steal some horses and attack a few wagon trains, but they were never at war with the United States, and in fact the Pawnee scouts were employed by the US Army during the Sioux Indian Wars. The other thing they got wrong was the reference to the Texas Rangers. I don't think they were formed until about 1825. We might as well also point out that Glass was attacked by the grizzly on the Grand River in South Dakota in much warmer weather. I enjoyed the movie, though.

Best regards,

Notchy Bob
Do you think the hat in the painting is one sideways badger folded over the top Of one that’s facing forward making the cape?
 
Do you think the hat in the painting is one sideways badger folded over the top Of one that’s facing forward making the cape?
The hat in the Bodmer painting, to me, looks like a pelt that may have had the belly and legs trimmed off to make sort of a rectangle. It could then be folded in half and stitched up one side. This would form the peak or point on the top of the cap in back, and would be very simple to make. However, if the face and tail were left on, you would see one or the other hanging over the man's shoulder. I think I see the badger's face over the man's right shoulder in the painting. The wardrobe people for the movie evidently left the face on, too, and somehow manipulated the skin to put the face in front. So, the movie hat looks a little different, but I do think it is of badger fur.

Alfred Jacob Miller was an artist who actually attended one of the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous and painted the trappers and Indians from life. His paintings are excellent resources, as are those of Karl Bodmer, who traveled up the Missouri in the 1830's. There was a 20th century artist and researcher named Rex Norman whose interests have moved on at this point, but 15-20 years ago he was immersed in the Rocky Mountain fur trade culture. He wrote and illustrated a number of excellent articles for MUZZLELOADER magazine at that time, and he also authored and illustrated a book that might interest you:

Norman - Book.JPG



This is the page on fur caps:

Norman - Fur Caps.JPG



The book is a study of Miller's artwork, with explanatory notes. this book would be considered a "secondary reference" by hardcore reenactors, but Norman's research is impeccable, and I would consider it "trustworthy."

So, I can't say exactly how the fur caps in the painting or the movie were made. I made my best guess for the cap in the Bodmer painting, but the movie cap seems kind of formless, maybe just pulled roughly into shape and held there with thongs. Hard to say. It looks warm, though!

Notchy Bob
 
The hat in the Bodmer painting, to me, looks like a pelt that may have had the belly and legs trimmed off to make sort of a rectangle. It could then be folded in half and stitched up one side. This would form the peak or point on the top of the cap in back, and would be very simple to make. However, if the face and tail were left on, you would see one or the other hanging over the man's shoulder. I think I see the badger's face over the man's right shoulder in the painting. The wardrobe people for the movie evidently left the face on, too, and somehow manipulated the skin to put the face in front. So, the movie hat looks a little different, but I do think it is of badger fur.

Alfred Jacob Miller was an artist who actually attended one of the Rocky Mountain Rendezvous and painted the trappers and Indians from life. His paintings are excellent resources, as are those of Karl Bodmer, who traveled up the Missouri in the 1830's. There was a 20th century artist and researcher named Rex Norman whose interests have moved on at this point, but 15-20 years ago he was immersed in the Rocky Mountain fur trade culture. He wrote and illustrated a number of excellent articles for MUZZLELOADER magazine at that time, and he also authored and illustrated a book that might interest you:

View attachment 98044


This is the page on fur caps:

View attachment 98045


The book is a study of Miller's artwork, with explanatory notes. this book would be considered a "secondary reference" by hardcore reenactors, but Norman's research is impeccable, and I would consider it "trustworthy."

So, I can't say exactly how the fur caps in the painting or the movie were made. I made my best guess for the cap in the Bodmer painting, but the movie cap seems kind of formless, maybe just pulled roughly into shape and held there with thongs. Hard to say. It looks warm, though!

Notchy Bob
woah that’s an awesome book. Thanks for all the input and insight. I really enjoy reading about that sort of thing and am planning in late ‘23 doing a series of fur trade inspired paintings. I WILL be contacting you again haha.
As far as the movie prop hat I read that the designers used fur and caked them(and all the clothes really) with bear grease and beat the crap out of them for hours and hours to give them an extremely used look. I think that’s where the formlessness comes in. I think that’s really a strength in the movie because yeah a frizzen might be open in the background or something off about an old timeline but at least the actors don’t look like they work in a Rocky Mountain theme park like some movies.
 
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