A duffel coat is a hooded overcoat made from a thick woolen material with large toggle fastenings, famously worn by Paddington Bear, the orphaned migrant from “darkest Peru.”
Warm and durable, duffel fabric has a remarkable history, reaching back from Europe’s Age of Exploration to the sale of Staten Island (and possibly Manhattan) at the beginnings of America’s modern history.
Flemish Cloth
Duffel is a small town near Antwerp – a modest place maybe, but significant nevertheless. It was the birthplace of the poet and lexicographer Cornelis Kiliaan who worked as a proof reader at the Officina Plantiniana in Antwerp, the print shop of Christophe Plantin, a giant in the history of the trade.
In 1599 Kiliaan published his Etymologicum teutonicae linguae. This, the first dictionary in the Low Countries (printed by Plantin), is mentioned as one of the key texts in the Canon of Dutch Literature.
Another famous son was the engraver Hendrik Hondius the Elder. Born in 1573, he was a Protestant refugee from Spanish Catholic persecution who eventually settled in The Hague where he became a prominent print-maker and publisher.
Hondius continued a splendid Flemish tradition of cartography that had started with the work Abraham Ortelius. The latter’s Theatrum orbis terrarum (Theatre of the World) first appeared in 1570 and continued to be published until 1612. It is considered the first atlas as we know it today and includes his ground-breaking map of the Americas. Explorers and mapmakers opened up and redefined the world.
Duffel enjoyed the prosperity brought about in Flanders by the skills of its weavers, lace makers and textile workers. Flemish cloth was renowned for its quality and in demand throughout Europe and beyond. The industry attracted Italian and Spanish merchants and financiers to the cities of Ghent and Ypres, and turned Bruges and later Antwerp into the busiest ports of northern Europe.
Duffel was different. While rival centers produced fine textiles for the rich and the aristocracy, this town specialized in the manufacture of a durable variety of rough cloth worn by the poor.
Their product was exported to seafaring nations such as Spain and Portugal and used as a covering material on ships. Sailors turned offcuts into bags for their belongings. Surviving records show that duffel was sold as far as Riga and beyond.
Duffel Coat & Bag
The manufacturing process of duffel was brought to England by Protestant Flemish refugees who had escaped Spanish persecution in the sixteenth century. The cloth remained in use to produce bags and blankets. The word itself survived in English, although it was often misspelled as “duffle.” In the mid-nineteenth century, the material would make a spectacular return in a new shape.
Made from a coarse woolen fabric, the duffel coat was designed and manufactured in the 1850s in Wolverhampton by John Partridge, a British purveyor of outerwear. His original designs were probably inspired by Polish “frock coats” which featured wide toggle closures and a large “bucket” hood (the duffel’s archetypal hallmarks).
The breakthrough for the company came in the 1880s when duffel was chosen by the Royal Navy to produce coats for sailors embarking on Antarctic expeditions. Its effectiveness at sea prompted the Admiralty to commission the weatherproof coat at a time that Britain and Germany started to expand their fleets in a naval arms race.
The first duffels were known as “convoy coats” as they were worn by the crew of merchant ships that traveled in a line for mutual protection. The duffel became a stalwart of British mariners.
The military followed suit. Duffel became a household name during the Second World War when the coat was worn by regiments in Africa, including those commanded by Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery and Colonel David Stirling, founder of the SAS.
The “Monty Coat” was synonymous with British bravery as glorified in naval-themed war movies starring David Niven, Jack Hawkins and others wearing the outfit. Duffels ruled the waves.
After the war, vast surpluses of army clothing were sold off to the public. Duffels became fashionable amongst artists and students (especially after the French poet Jean Cocteau was photographed in 1958 wearing a white duffel jacket in the company of Coco Chanel).
During the 1950s/60s most British children walked to school in a black/blue coat with a hood and horizontal toggle closure. Anybody growing up in the Netherlands during that period will remember wearing his/her “houtje-touwtje” coat (we all did).
The duffel bag also takes its name from its original material, although at present they are produced in various durable materials such as canvas or leather. Originally, duffel was used to make formless but sturdy sailor bags that could easily be crumpled up and yet fit many items for a long sea voyage.
Ambulance drivers in the military carried medical equipment in cylindrical duffel bags closed with a drawstring rope. During the Second World War, such bags were issued to British and American soldiers, sailors and airmen in a variety of sizes and designs as crucial tools for transporting supplies.
After the war the duffel bag found its way into army stores and became a fashion item. Their popularity has never diminished thanks to Louis Vuitton and other designers. Few duffel enthusiasts today will realize that the use of this material goes back as far as the foundation of what would become New York City.
Great Fur Rush
Starting in the Age of Exploration, Dutch and English merchants competed to discover a northern route to Asia’s profitable markets. When Henry Hudson was dismissed by the London Muscovy Company for failing to accomplish that task, the Amsterdam Chamber of the Dutch East India Company (VOC) immediately re-employed the explorer. He was sent out to find a north-eastern passage to the Orient, but disobeyed orders and sailed in the opposite direction.
On September 3, 1609, Hudson and his Anglo-Dutch crew of sixteen sailed the Halve Maen (Half Moon) up the river that now bears his name. On his return, he painted an image of fertile lands, a limitless supply of timber, and an abundance of beavers. Dutch traders were keen to finance further exploration of such rich prospects. By 1614, merchants were sending vessels to Manhattan to secure large economic returns from fur trading.
In 1621, after several years of private competitive involvement, the States-General – the de facto federal government of the Dutch Republic – created the West India Company (WIC). This state sponsored monopoly began settling the colony of New Netherland in 1624 at a time that the Republic was dealing with a mass influx of Flemish and French-speaking Walloon Protestants who had fled Spanish persecution. The WIC recruited a number of refugee families to populate the New Netherland colony.
In mid-May 1626, Walloon merchant and 3rd Director of New Netherland Peter Minuit purchased the island of Manhattan from Native Americans on behalf of the WIC. As the contract has been lost, extant evidence for the sale is scant.
The actual content of goods traded for the island is unknown, but the deed concerning the acquisition of Staten Island (“Staaten Eylandt”) survives. Dated August 10, 1630, it identifies the sellers by name, defines the property and affirms its new ownership.
Representatives of the WIC paid the Lenni-Lenape Sachems of the island with “Duffels, Kittles, Axes, Hoes, Wampum, Drilling Awls, Jews harps and diverse other small wares.”
It seems likely that similar trade items were offered in the negotiations over the Manhattan sale. In popular history the “glittering beads and baubles” element has featured strongly, but the trading of “Duffels” has been overlooked.
To early settlers in the colony, the availability of warm cloth was essential to survive freezing temperatures and equally important in their business dealings with indigenous traders who exchanged duffel for beaver pelts.
According to Isaack de Rasières, Secretary of New Netherland since 1626, duffel was used by Native Americans both as clothing and as blankets (substituting or “westernizing” their traditional deerskins).
In his correspondence with his employers, he demanded a regular and substantial supply of pieces of uncut cloth in brown, black or blue (locals rejected red as it hampered their hunting).
Felt Hats
Trade in fur solidified the first contacts between European settlers and the native peoples of Manhattan. Newcomers found ways to work with local hunters, study their trapping skills and exploit their familiarity with the land (including the Adirondacks). Beaver fur was extremely popular in Europe at the time and quickly became a valued item on the list of export commodities.
All over Europe, felted beaver hats had been in demand from at least the mid-fourteenth century and were a status symbol as evidenced by Geoffrey’s Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales where the author refers to a merchant wearing a “Flandrish [Flemish] beaver hat.” Their manufacture was a Huguenot specialty.
Hat making developed in Normandy during the period that the Edict of Nantes was in force, allowing French Protestants to live, work and worship in peace. The industry flourished in Caudebec-en-Caux, a town close to Rouen on the right bank of the River Seine. Made from beaver hair and felted in a highly protected secret process, the “Caudebec” was waterproof – a unique achievement at the time.
The costly ‘Huguenot’ hat was worn at the Royal Court, in High Society and even by Catholic bishops and cardinals. King Louis XIV wore a Caudebec, even though he was responsible for revoking the Edict of Nantes in October 1685 which led to the renewed persecution of Protestants. From that point in time the word refugee – réfugié – entered into the English language.
Felt hats reflected social identity. The shape, color or style of one’s hat indicated profession, rank, religion or affiliation. From Catholic Cardinal to Puritan Minister, from army or naval officer to local official, every hat carried specific meaning. Wearing a beaver felt hat was a visual statement about one’s communal status.
Beaver pelts were initially imported from Russia into Europe. In the early seventeenth century the substantial beaver population throughout northern Europe and Siberia became severely depleted due to over-hunting.
By 1600, nearly all fur exports from Russia had stopped. The exhaustion of beaver populations coincided with the arrival of European settlers in North America. As there were no physical differences between the North American (Castor canadensis) and the European beaver (Castor fiber), the potential of rich supplies opened up once more.
Isaack de Rassières, himself a French-speaking Walloon refugee, would have been keenly aware of the value of these exports. Beaver “wool” was a highly priced commodity in the manufacturing process of felt hats.
Would the WIC have stayed in Manhattan if it was not for the Great Fur Rush? Probably not.
Extinction & Exit
Throughout the Dutch presence in Manhattan, ships arriving in New Amsterdam from the Low Countries carried cargoes of duffel and returned with beaver pelts. Once slaves had become part of New Netherland’s social infrastructure, WIC officials expressed concern about their protection from the cold.
Compassion was driven by the economic need to safeguard the Company’s investment in the labor force. If it were not for heavy duffels, New Netherland may not have survived.
From the outset, Manhattan had been a commercial venture for the WIC. It is no coincidence that the Company’s willingness to negotiate its withdrawal coincided with a sharp decline in beaver populations on the island. They had been hunted to near extinction.
Dutch colonials had settled on Manhattan to make money, not to build an Empire or solve the social problems of a diverse and unruly urban population. In 1664, New Amsterdam was reincorporated under English law as the City of New York in exchange for Dutch ownership of the sugar plantations and slaves of Surinam and control over the Banda Islands where nutmeg was cultivated.
Holland gained monopoly over a spice that was literally worth its weight in gold. Troublesome New Amsterdam was sacrificed for the instant profits of sugar, spice and slaves.
Illustrations, from above: Paddington Bear in a duffel coat; Frans Vermeulen, Duffel Coat Stature (2007) in Hondiuslaan’s main roundabout; draft of a rejected “Coat of Arms with Beaver” inspired by Amsterdam’s coat of arms, ca 1630 (from a catalogue for Frederik Muller, Amsterdam, 1869); William Ludwell Sheppard, “Dutch and Native American Indian traders on Manhattan Island,” 1876 (NY Public Library); a selection of “professional” beaver hats; and King Louis XIV with the “Huguenot” Caudebec hat.
