The top hat first appeared at the very end of the eighteenth-century and, through modification of the style, remained the dominant form of headwear for the next hundred years.

The United Kingdom's increased industrial output in the middle years of the nineteenth century meant that popular fashions which were previously out-of-reach for the majority of the population were now more accessible to men lower down the social ladder. The resemblance of the straight, high-crowned headgear to factory chimneys did not go unnoticed, nor did the fact that many wealthy industrialists wore them, and so the top hat became a symbol of urban respectability.

This example, with its almost-vertical sides and fairly broad brim, is fairly typical of the 1850s. The type was known as the 'stovepipe', a form most commonly associated with Abraham Lincoln. By this time, beaver fur had been replaced with silk plush as the preferred material for their manufacture, which gives the hat its rich lustre.

Christy’s came to the fore in the 1850s as a supplier of quality headgear after producing top hats for Albert, the Prince Consort. Thereafter, any man hoping to affect sophistication and gentility was drawn to this now-famous label, with the hope that he too might be regarded with similar respect and adulation.