Dating Your Hat (A Place to Discuss the Age of Your Vintage Hat)

[Brad Bowers]

The Knox is from the early- to mid-'60s, as the union label doesn't show up until then, even though Hat Corporation of America had been a closed shop since 1946. I have yet to find an answer why the label is missing for those years.

Brad

 

[alanfgag]

nice to see you, Brad.

 

[Brad Bowers]

nice to see you, Brad.

Thanks, nice to see you too, Alan!

Brad

 

[milehiscott]

Thanks Brad.

 

[barrowjh]

Yes, have not seen Brad in a while.

 

[splintercellsz]

Knox homburg... I am unsure on the date of this hat, but it seems to be an older one (but I could be wrong)... It is black, but the pics make it seem blueish...

If anyone can help figure a date, many thanks!

 

[Dinerman]

I'd lean towards the early 1930s.

 

[alanfgag]

Great hat. I would guess 1940s. The ovalized sixteenths trademark was filed by Hat Corporation of America in 1947.

 

[Brad Bowers]

This is one of those weird ones where the three of us have slightly differing opinions! I would have said late-'30s to early-'40s, even then I'm not sure. We had a discussion about the "Ovalized Sixteenths" trademark last year. We know in the 1930s that it was being embossed or stamped on the sweatband, with the words "Trade Mark," starting in 1933. At some point that moves to the brown oval size tag, which I would have put after 1947 and the filing date. Mostly because the oval tag without "Ovalized Sixteenths" was also used across Hat Corp.'s other product lines in the early-'50s.


The liner, sweatband, and factory tag on the above hat all suggest 1930s to perhaps 1942 or so. The factory tag should change by 1942 or so to the standard elongated 1940s Hat Corp. tag due to their big push for standardization. The differences could be due to the Knox Brooklyn factory doing things differently, but hat production moved to Norwalk shortly after the purchase of Knox & Dunlap in 1932, as the Brooklyn factory was relegated to warehouse duty by 1935 and no longer producing hats.All we know for sure is that Knox hats from 1932 to WWII are squirrelly when it comes to dating.


Brad

 

[tridentine]

Can someone please give me qn aproximate age on this Homburg?
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-DUN...u+fbah0fm5/jKfQaFz84VEk=&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc
Thank you.

 

[alanfgag]

Thanks for adding to this, Brad. It's an interesting example - the fabulous inkless debossed sweatband stamp does not look familiar to me. I also could not find a reference to Dasch's in Wilkensburg, PA. A nice mystery to start the week.

Congratulations on a great find, Justin.

 

[splintercellsz]

Thank you for the info; Dinerman, Alan, and Brad! If anyone finds anything, or is able to narrow the date down further, please, by all means let me know. I too will br doing research to try to find more info. Gotta love mysteries!

 

[Connoisseur_BP]

Came across this beautiful Stetson western hat in fantastic shape. I'm not quite sure exactly what it is though or what year it is from. All I know is that it's 3X Beaver and from Stetson. I would appreciate any information that anyone could provide on it.

 

[jlee562]

I had one of those in chocolate brown that I donated to Art Fawcett's cash for clunkers. I was guessing 80's because it had a modern looking tag inside mine.

 

[randooch]

. . . which isn't to say it's a "clunker" if you fancy the hat, Connoisseur.

 

[jlee562]

. . . which isn't to say it's a "clunker" if you fancy the hat, Connoisseur.

Oh, certainly not! Mine was the clunker because it needed a reblock. I got it cheap with the intention of doing a conversion. But the color turned out to be darker than I really wanted, so I figured I'd pass it on to a deserving vet and get myself a VS.

 

[alanfgag]

... should've had a VS.

Kinda has a ring to it. I can let it go cheap.

 

[Connoisseur_BP]

So the 80's you say? Is there a specific name for this hat?

 

[Dinerman]

"Cowboy hat".

 

[Connoisseur_BP]

"Cowboy hat".

lol, I knew that. I meant more like model. I know it's definitely not an open road.