Thomas Coutts, famous as the founder of the bank Coutts & Co., would have been in his seventies or early eighties when this hat was made for him. Contemporaries in the early nineteenth-century noted that he dressed very unfashionably and shabbily for a man of his wealth and position. His personal style was updated late in life by his far-younger second wife, the actress Harriot Mellon, whom he married in 1815.
![[Hugh Hope by Sir Henry Raeburn, 1810] Me during Regency England? I always enjoyed Gentlemen's fashion of the era. Really, the plain demure and crisp suits championed by Beau Brummell stemmed from the ideals of the French Revolution.~ King George Iv, Beau Brummell, Ages Of Man, Joshua Reynolds, Cleveland Museum Of Art, Image Collection, Heritage Image, 19th Century](https://i.pinimg.com/236x/74/3a/a0/743aa07868471eb1b7c8da84b49ac530--male-portraits-hugh-obrian.jpg)
