Victorian tin hat boxes and AI

 Just over two years ago I asked Gemini and Co Pilot to write me an article on Victorian tin hat boxes.

At the time I'd documented two or three nineteenth century metal hat boxes as part of the Lake View documentation project, and had acquired a temporary and probably superficial expertise through looking at museum websites and antique traders online catalogues. However, the topic did strike me as obscure enough to be a reasonable test of both tools and their ability to handle more specialist queries.

Back in 2024, the results were mixed to say the least, and showed that whatever the strength of the algorithms, the underlying data set wasn't great as regards tin hat boxes.

So, today I retried the same experiment, and here are the opening paragraphs of the two responses

Co Pilot

Victorian tin hat boxes are antique metal containers, typically dating from the 19th century, designed to protect top hats and other formal headwear during travel or storage. They were commonly made from tinplate or toleware (painted tin) and often featured carrying handles, hinged lids, and decorative painted finishes.

Gemini

Victorian tin hat boxes are highly sought-after 19th-century antiques that were originally designed to protect valuable headwear, such as top hats and elaborate bonnets, during railway and steamship travel. Typically made of sheet metal or iron, these sturdy containers are celebrated today for their distinct oval or round shapes, hand-riveted construction, and beautiful aged patina. Many authentic pieces from this era featured japanned black or painted exteriors, warm reddish-brown or contrasting light-coloured interiors, robust brass hardware, and lockable latches

While both articles go on to discuss their collectability as antiques and possible use in interior design we can see that both Gemini and Co Pilot now produce sensible responses  on the historic context and principal features, including mentioning toleware (Co pilot) and the use of japanning (Gemini) - toleware being the American term, and japanning being the British term for essentially the same technique, and both engines provided links to sources, with Gemini in particular citing eHive.

While you still clearly need to verify sources, I'm quite impressed by the improvement in the responses...