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

[alanfgag]

This is the later iteration of the No.1 Quality logo which we see mostly in 1950s examples. The tags and plastic crown protector support this. There is this interesting variant which might be late 1930s... unusual age for a hat with the later logo.

 

[randooch]

Nice one, Alan. Do you still have it?

 

[alanfgag]

No, I never owned this one... auction photos only, posted for reference. It's the only example in this early vintage I've come across.

 

[winter_joe]

Need help dating a disney twenty oxford with cav edge

 

[winter_joe]

The liner has a man and it says Mr. Disney. There is a reorder tag but I didn't get a pic of that its 7 3/4 long oval with the words decoratively stamped into the sweatband

 

[kringlur]

Here is a hat I bought last week at Fríða Frænka, an antique shop in Reykjavik, Iceland. Sorry for my ignorance, I've never even owned a hat before and I only started learning about them here after I bought this one. Could you also guess at what a hat like this should cost? I want to know if I got a good deal or not.

It's a "soft" hat in that you can press in on the crown and it will indent a bit.
The white lining is sewn in with stitches of white thread.
Ribbon width: 4cm / just over 1.5in
Brim width: 5.5cm / 2.5in, measured from the underside to the point where the trimming/edging on the brim starts
Brim curl height: about 1.5cm / 1in (this is just where the edging curls up)
Crown height: about 11cm / 4.5in
Labelled hat size: (53) 3 - this should mean the hat(?) circumference is 53cm and the hat size is 3. Does this mean my head should be 53 or smaller than 53? Because my head is luckily 53, so no wonder it feels a little small.

markings: Chapean Mossant, 1ére Marque Française
importé par Haraldur Árnason, HA, Reykjavík
Qualité supérievre, Marque Déposée, Mossant, Espositions Vniverselles, Cinq grands prix

(I'm not embedding the images because I think they're too big for that. I'll edit this post tomorrow with a good photo of how the lining is sewn but right now it's too dark to take photos.)

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1270971.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1270972.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1270973.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1270970.jpg

 

[zetwal]

Here is a hat I bought last week at Fríða Frænka, an antique shop in Reykjavik, Iceland.

Very nice hat, and welcome to the Lounge! :yo:

 

[randooch]

Very nice hat, and welcome to the Lounge! :yo:

Yes, that's a gem!

You've come to the right place for answers to all of your hat questions. Enjoy!

 

[kringlur]

Very nice hat, and welcome to the Lounge! :yo:

Thank you! It was a little difficult getting registered because I didn't know you had to have a non-yahoo/gmail/etc. email, but I'm having lots of fun learning about these old clothes and things.

Yes, that's a gem!

You've come to the right place for answers to all of your hat questions. Enjoy!

Thanks! Yes, after reading some threads I felt very lucky. The only problems with it are that it's a bit dusty and the ribbon is a little messed up at one part (it looks like it got caught on something and was folded for a long time, so now it has creases and the very top edge has a loose thread), both due to bad storage on the store's part. I haven't noticed anything like stains or holes and nothing seems to be coming loose in the lining either, I guess I'm lucky Iceland doesn't seem to have moths or mice!

 

[zetwal]

Thank you! It was a little difficult getting registered because I didn't know you had to have a non-yahoo/gmail/etc. email, but I'm having lots of fun learning about these old clothes and things.

Iceland doesn't seem to have moths or mice!

I'm glad that you were able to register. FL is a lot of fun.

No mice or moths?! That sounds heavenly ... :yo:

 

[kringlur]

I've now done as much research as I feel I can do (for at least a few days) on this Icelandic shop to try and help pin down the date, seeing as someone else probably knows all about the Mossant brand and can help there. The problem is that there isn't much info you can find (I'm looking through old newspapers online, like someone suggested once before on here somewhere), ex. many years go by before I can find another advertisement for the same shop. So all the date ranges are an estimate, although I do have specific dates for some things. Here's what I found:

The shop initials (HÁ) were used as a logo just like on the hat from at least 1923 until at least 1953. However the logo of the full name of the shop (Haraldur Árnason), I've only found it advertised just like on the hat from 1920-31, and then I can't find it again (they used plain text all the other times until they changed the shop name). I would guess it stopped being used from 1940 onwards because at that point the shop name was changed to just "Haraldarbúð" (the shortening actually first appears in 1932 but in 1940 onwards the usage explodes, so I'm not sure without delving deeper when the official change date was) and the logo changed accordingly, because in 1953 the logo is in a similar style but now features this shortened name.

Hats were advertised as being sold at the shop(s) during its entire existence (which was 1st Sept. 1915 to 1960), but specifically Mossant (instead of just saying hats in general) was only advertised a few times that I can find, in 1927, 30, 31, and 53. However on May 22nd, 1927 these were the logos of the major hat brands, as advertised in the newspaper, and this might help someone else to date their hat:

(In 1938 the Borsalino logo was printed in the papers twice and it looks the same as this one, only it's black, filled-in text instead of an outline.)

The quality is bad, but you can at least tell that on the Mossant logo pictured there are three little "flowers" below the "lion" (I have no idea what these things are supposed to be), but on my hat there are four.

 

[mayserwegener]

I would guess 1930s but RLK (Robert) might be able to help. He has a good size collection of Mossants. You might want to send him a PM if he doesn't reply to this thread.

 

[rlk]

Post-WW2 Sweatband Logo seen into late 50's. 30's have many different logos, the Cinq. Grand Prix was awarded 1925.

Here's an older one sold in Sweden:

60's

 

[kringlur]

Here is the remaining photo for that first hat of mine: http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1280661.jpg

Thanks everyone! Now guess who visited the same store and bought another hat (and a pocket almanac from 1936)? I probably wouldn't have bought another one so soon, but this new one fits me better and I'm leaving Iceland next week so I won't get another chance. Maybe I should sell the other one already, my wife also doesn't like black hats at all and she doesn't want me to wear the black one... I'm hasty when it comes to buying old stuff!

Edit: The bow is on the front, what does that mean? Did I buy an unflashy women's hat? Haha!

notes: Christys', London
Haraldur Arnason, Reykjavík (back then they couldn't make Á??)
Made in England, Haraldur Arnason, Reykjavik.
hat tag: black with "6 3/4" and the underside is white, the printing of the size bled through to the white side
ribbon width: 7.5cm / about 2 2/3in.
brim width: about 5 3/4 cm / almost 2.5in
crown height: 9.5cm / almost 4in

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1280662.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1280663.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1280664.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1280667.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1280666.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/oldstuff/P1280665.jpg

http://i1078.photobucket.com/albums/w496/captainporridge/P1280687.jpg

 

[asianfreckles]

My husband inherited these vintage hats from his 100 year old grandfather. We would like to sell them since they are too small to fit my husband's head. Would anyone be kind enough to help date them and guess at what a fair price would be? I'll be sure to post the ebay link on the selling forum.

First Hat - Straw Fedora, Stetson, Brills/Colony, size:7 1/4

Second Hat - Felt Fedora, The J.L. Hudson Company, "Pesca" Borsalino Thirty, Made in Italy, Size: 7 1/8
I "burned" the logo in photo elements so you can see it better.

Third Hat - Felt Fedora, Dobbs, Steve Petix, Guild Edge, Size: 7 1/8

Thanks in advance!

 

[carouselvic]

All would fall within the 60's-70's range

 

[asianfreckles]

Thank you for the info!

 

[Vampyre Master]

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?19520-What-Hat-Are-You-Wearing-Today/page4435
trying to id this vintage boater, any thoughts
VM

 

[zetwal]

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?19520-What-Hat-Are-You-Wearing-Today/page4435
trying to id this vintage boater, any thoughts
VM

I don't see what you mean at that location.

 

[gtdean48]

I don't see what you mean at that location.

+1 - also remember that some Loungers view in reverse chronological order so page references won't be pointing to same set of posts....