Melusine Top Hat

Made popular towards the end of the 18th Century the Topper became synonymous with the English gentleman and the Mad Hatter from Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice in Wonderland’.  Although mercury was used in the hatter’s trade, and ingestion could lead one to lose their mental equilibrium  the term “Mad as a hatter” more likely derives from “as venomous as a viper”

‘as venomous as a viper’