Thank you everyone for your responses.
Fearn:
The hat/helmet is very sturdy. At it's base, it is nearly .75 inches thick. I suspect the main spiral of rattan is actually a double layer, but it is weaved so tightly that there's no way to prove this without deconstructing the thing. It probably is tough enough to absorb a sword blow, but more to the point, it's definitely tough enough to DEFLECT a sword blow. The particularly steep incline seems well-suited to deflecting an overhead strike...even the very top is peaked by a cone-shaped piece of wood. I think the construction, coupled by the soldier illustration, makes a good argument that this is a helmet rather than a hat. You are correct, however, that my wife makes it look so stylish that it is easily mistaken for a fashion statement.
Chris:
Please thank your secretary for me. Would you mind asking her to be a little more specific? I'd like to know what characteristics about it make it look Vietnamese to her.
Josh:
Yes, I followed this thread with great interest when Scott first posted the photo. These photos depict fairly typical Chinese rattan helmets. The obvious difference is that the Chinese use vertical strips of rattan to construct the "bowl," whereas this helmet uses a spiral of rattan, held together by thinner rattan strips, weaved into the spiral vertically (again, very like Chinese and Vietnamese shields). The Vietnamese also used a helmet similar to these Chinese examples; I'm attaching a postcard depicting a couple of Vietnamese soldiers, circa 1910. Curiously, I haven't found any depictions of spirally-constructed helmets in China, despite them having shields of that construction.
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