Yellowknife (Dec 19/03) - Like a collection of delicate jewels, Shirley Prescott's hat pins are most certainly a conversation piece.

Shirley Prescott shows her unique collection of antique hat pins, displayed on a neck roll. - Dorothy Westerman/NNSL photo

Prescott says the approximately 90 pins are from antique shops across Western Canada, America, England and Scotland.

While she knows little of the history of most of her pins, Prescott knows plenty about the first one she ever acquired.

"It's the one from my mother -- just a plain little white pearl pin."

It wasn't until she went on a trip to Seattle 12 years ago, however, that she began building her hat pin collection, Prescott said.

Ranging from a silver swastika to Chinese jade, amber and ivory, the pins are of varied lengths and styles.

Popular in the 19th century and even into the 1900s, the pins were designed to keep hats and veils in place. Prescott laughs as she recalls a story told by her husband Greg's mother about the sometimes unconventional uses for a hatpin.

"She remembers wearing hat pins when she was young. She remembers they would have long ones they would take to the beach and bury in the sand.

"If anyone would come up and give them trouble, they would pull out their hat pins and use them as a weapon."

Family members sometimes contribute to her collection, although Prescott laughs when they say it's funny she never wears a hat.

Prescott said she knows of no one else in the city who has such a collection.

And while she has searched the Internet for pins to add to her collection, she said it is difficult to find those that are authentic and not reproductions.

"And while I do have a few reproductions, I do try to buy antiques," she said.

Having recently joined the Yellowknife Red Hat Society, Prescott said she will now perhaps have the opportunity to wear a few of these pins for special occasions.