Opera hat which means hat, and "claque", which means "tap" or "click". The "chapeau claque" is thus a hat that folds with a click, and unfolds likewise. In English the hat model is usually referred to as a "collapsible top-hat", "gibus" or more often "opera hat"- The construction may originally have been inspired by an historical hat model called "chapeau bras" ("arm hat"), made as bicorne or tricorne to be carried folded under the arm On May 5, 1812, a London hatter called Thomas Francis Dollman patented a design for "an elastic round hat" supported by ribs and springs. His patent was
Chapeau d'Espagne a King's Plate over three miles. On the following afternoon Chapeau d'Espagne reversed the form with Luck's-all, beating her older rival in the two mile Salisbury Gold Cup. A week after her exploits at Salisbury, Chapeau d'Espagne appeared at the Devon and Exeter meeting where she won the Devonshire Stakes, beating Rattle and King of Clubs. Bentinck's filly was at Weymouth a week later where she finished second to the unusually named three-year-old filly I-wish-you-may-get-it in a King's Plate. Chapeau d'Espagne's last race was at Abingdon on 12 September. In the two and a half mile Abingdon Cup she defeated