Aunt Mary's hatbox

I have mentioned my Great Aunt Mary (my Grandma's younger sister) before and shown you some of her bits 'n' bobs that I now have. I have had this hatbox which belonged to Aunt Mary for a few years, when she moved from her house into sheltered accommodation. As you can imagine, my parents had to do a lot of clearing out at Aunt Mary's old home and my Mum thought that I might like this hatbox ~ which, of course, I do! It now resides under the coffee table and I use it to store my letter-writing paraphanalia :-)

The box dates right back to 1933 when Aunt Mary was still unmarried and living at home. I would love to know what kind of hat she bought way back then and why she purchased it from a store in London. Was it a hat for a special occasion? Perhaps she saw it in a magazine advertisement and sent away for it ~ maybe it was an offer too good to miss! The other question, of course, is why did she hang on to the box for all those years? Was it for sentimental reasons or perhaps she was just being thrifty ~ after all, it is still a good sturdy box even now!

No postcodes back in 1933 ~ nor any need for a house number, either!

A close-up of the King George V stamp. Can you imagine being able to send a box of that size through the post for just 6d :-)

This sugar bowl and cream jug is nothing whatsoever to do with Aunt Mary ~ nor her hatbox LOL I just wanted to show them to you because they are so pretty :-)