JF Ptak Science Books Quick Post
[Source: “Eli W. Buel (American, active ca. 1870) Top Hat, ca. 1870, albumen print carte-de-visite, museum purchase, George Eastman House”, here.]
This is a great example of “everyday objects shriek aloud” as Magritte said somewhere along the path of his life. I thought about him right away seeing this much earlier vision of a floating hat and that it fit somehow into a Melville (“I would prefer not to”) Duchamp (“This is not a pipe”) and Magritte continuum:
[Source: Stardust Modern Design]