ALBERT HAND IN A TOP HAT
Appropriated 19th century graphic (type added,) found b&w cabinet photo (photo dyes, markers) cut out and mounted on a painted acrylic background on paper. Signed in ink. The top hat, seen first in Middlesex, England in 1793, is associated with the upper class and the business world. A snobby person was called a "high hat." They were made of silk or, later, felt. 18th century hat-makers used mercury to make the felt. Workers were poisoned by it--one sign was dementia-- and gave rise to the term "mad hatter." At first hats were 8 inches tall. By the 1920's they were on average 5 inches.