top hat & case

Scott & Co

Summary

Silk top hat, bow tie and case: Silk hat with maker printed on inner lining: "Scott & Co / Hatters to H.M. the King / 1 Old Bond Street, W. / London". Associated un made-up black silk bow tie. Tan leather bucket shaped carrying case with 3 straps and buckles. Belonged to Sir John Taylor. Sir John Taylor was the founder of John Taylor & Co, solicitors to the Lancashire textile industry. He started manufacturing in Blackburn and later opened an office in Manchester to be near the Cotton Exchange. Sir John was ahead of his time in practice development. He arranged to work in a textile mill on the morning shift before he went to the office. He wrote a respected book on textile industry contract, explaining technicalities for the benefit of the parties and their lawyers in contracts to buy woven cloth; the specification of quality, industry customs and standards, faults per square inch before cloth became a 'second', and so on. He gave many lectures on the subject, was knighted for "services to the textile industry", and died without retiring in the late 1970s. As trade declined after the war, the Blackburn office suffered and the Manchester office became the main profit centre. Eventually Taylor's Manchester office was shut down, and the donor, Christopher Durrant, rescued some things that would otherwise have been thrown away, among them Sir John's top hat (and bow tie) in its box. He assumed that a top hat would have been required for visits to the Cotton Exchange, so it would have made perfect sense for Sir John to keep it in the office.