Biltmore House Hat

[Colby Jack]

I just won this on ebay...What do you think it is?http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEBTOX:IT&item=120249302499&_trksid=p3984.cTODAY.m238.lVI

 

[tonyb]

It's a hard-to-go-wrong-at-that-price hat.

Looks like a pretty decent bound-edge western with a narrow ribbon. Lots of brim and crown but not so extreme as to be something you just wouldn't wear outside a rodeo.

 

[Colby Jack]

I'm almost wondering if it's an OR of some sort....It's got that bound edge...thin ribbon and it says it's a 3x....Soooooo...but yeah...for that price...if it ain't right...It'll go back out on the bay...

 

[warbird]

http://www.biltmorehats.com/

I would say it's definitely in an OR styling of some pedigree or other. Seems a nice fur felt hat to me

 

[Colby Jack]

The thing is....it may not even be a Biltmore...it says it was made for the Biltmore House in N.C....So it could be a Stetson or who knows what...Does anyone recognize what little of the logo they can see?

 

[Woodfluter]

Biltmore *House*??

Hmm...pics don't allow good view of the label. The Biltmore House, which I've visited several times, is in nearby Asheville NC. They sell some souvenir items, which of course include "hats", and a visit to their website shows those to be baseball caps, usually coupled with T-shirts. Doesn't look like anything they'd sell, unless was made for some special event maybe.

So I suspect we have a Canadian-made Biltmore hat of some vintage, recent or otherwise. Confabulation with the Biltmore House being a whim of the seller. What with the binding, perhaps earlier rather than later? As this is XXX and there seems to have been some X-inflation going on with time?

Due to a recent posting, I visited the website of a well-known, long-established (will remain un-named here) Hollywood hatmaker. They are offering...drumroll..."200-XXX" quality beaver. Good grief. Pretty soon we will be in the realm of scientific notation.

Anyway, could be a pretty good hat and as others said, price unbeatable!

- Bill

 

[warbird]

Oh I have seen 100x and one million X even from one hatmaker. There seems to be no limits to the X's in sight.

I'm not sure there ever truly was a real meaning to the X. Supposedly one hatmaker, Stetson, used it for the percentage of Beaver, each X being a 10% jump in beaver percentage. Obviously then the 10X would have been the height of Beaver make. I'm not sure when this ended and I'm not sure it ever pertained to any other hatmaker.

 

[Colby Jack]

I thought each X was 1% beaver...I've seen the 5000X models...haven't touched 'em...so I don't know the quality....I saw Warlock...one of our members here not long ago...and he was sporting a 3500X I believe...felt really nice and light!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

Anyway...can't wait to see what this hat is...

 

[GentlemanFarmer]

Schweeeet

Great looking hat. A 7 1/2 ??

 

[RBH]

Nice... what type of crease do you plan on?

 

[MAB1]

Nice lookin hat. Hope its the real deal .

 

[Rick Blaine]

Weird

That is at least the third hat I have seen in the last week with some variant of that basic information. The only one I could find currently is tagged as "SCALA HAT CO. - BILTMORE ESTATE HAT !" so I am fairly sure it is not a Biltmore, odd.

Yours however looks to have what seems to be a maple leaf on the hat band, lending credence to the supposition that it is from Canuckistan. Further it looks to be fur felt & this Scala is certainly not. Superior score for twelve bucks! :eusa_clap

 

[Stoney]

It is a great looking hat, no matter what it's origins are. CJ, keep us posted when you receive it. I would like to see a better shot of the liner as well.

Rick,

Canuckistan? lol

You're killing me.

 

[Colby Jack]

Thanks everyone...Rick...I saw that Scala listing also...the moment I saw "scala", I shyed away...This one just had a look to it and for $12, I couldn't beat it...RBH...Well if it fits..I'll probably put in some type of C crown..Hard to say until I get my grubbies on it... We'll see what it tells me to do...it's always fun when ya get a mystery sort of hat...I wrote the seller to let me know what else is written inside...and what the logo is...Stoney...soon as I get it, I'll post pics and info......and we'll see about it's Canuckistan lineage!

 

[carldelo]

Read through the listing - lower down it's written "BILTOMORE HOUSE" - maybe it's actually supposed to be "BALTIMORE HOUSE"? Could that make any sense?

 

[Stan]

Who Knows?

Hi,

Biltmore, Bilt-o-more, Balt-i-more, Malt-O-Meal, whatever. We'll probably never get it figured out.

At $12 bucks it's a pretty darned good deal even if the thing was orginally for the International House Of Pancakes!

It appears to be a nice Stetson Open Road clone. If you find you don't like it, it'll be easy enough to find someone to adopt it, and at a profit to boot. Hey! Put it on the Classifieds for $24 and double your money!! :eusa_clap

As far as the XXX's go, that's something else we'll never get figured out. Some makers use an 'X' to mean 10% beaver, some 5%, some use it to rank the work they put into it. Heck, some felters used X's to denote options in their body lines.

The XXX"s only mean something within a brand at the time when the hats are brand-new and then only as an indicator that you might actually be getting something extra in a $100 hat that you aren't getting in a $50 one.

In other words, deep-six the XXX's, don't worry about where the thing came from, and enjoy wearing it!

Later!

Stan

 

[Colby Jack]

Stan...it's always the excitement of finding something like this...who knows what it will be?...I'm just hoping it fits with out to much hassle...and it will make a great beater...or off to the classifieds it goes!

 

[Stan]

So true!

Hi,

Yes, that is *so* true - what's it going to be? Too much like Christmas mornings when we were little kids.

While I'm now into this whole custom hat thing, that's obviously reserved for 'good' hats. I thought I'd give up eBay hats with the arrival of my first custom hat, but it appears not to be so.

I think this site carries a risk of infection with the Dreaded Hat Disease. Seems as though there ought to be a disclaimer on the home page..... lol

Anyway, I'm with you. I'm no longer looking at the big name brand and style hats that everyone bids up. I'm eyeballing these oddball things with $2 starting bids, poor photos and even poorer descriptions.

What will it be? Exac-a-tic-a-ly. That, right there, is the appeal of the thing for me. And, what a mighty strong one it is, too!

I'm currently working on one of those fabled-felt vintage Borsalinos as it has a musty odor and a stained hatband. I figured, what the heck, it's cheap ($20 - I paid high for this one because of what it was) and I can use it as a learning tool. I also figured on it needing a new liner, sweat and hat bands to boot.

However, a few passes with the alky and then setting it for a couple days in front of a fan and the musty odor is gone. Some more work with alky and paper towels, and the stains in the hat band are going as well. The sweatband was halfway to heaven (as in dried out) but some passes with conditioner are bringing it back. I figure another few hours here and there working on it will make for yet another 'everyday' hat added to the collection.

I also have a new-old-stock 30 year old cowboy hat (Resistol) coming that I want to try my hand at converting into a fedora. Again, low dollar because no one else bothered bidding on it. If I screw it up, I'm not out much. So, what will it be? Dunno - yet.

So, off to eBay to stick a couple more hats into the old watch list and see if they look like orphans or not.....

Later!

Stan

 

[Colby Jack]

Stan...we have the sickness bad!:eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Stan]

Sad but true

Hi,

I *must* be ill here. I just won a sort-of Open Road style hat on eBay last evening for $4. Now I just can hardly wait for it to get here so I can see what in heck I managed to get for $4! lol

I have something like 20 hats in the watch list, but won't bid until we're into the last day and the price hasn't gone over $20. So, it's an illness, but a cheap one.

Later!