Ebay Hats: Victories, Defeats, Gripes & Items of Interest

[John Galt]

Thanks ManofKent & Splintz.

Updating prior posts, here is the Mallory Miracle Felt Vagabond, as received today. This has a sweat that is almost identical to my Dobbs Double Life - super thin leather covered by fabric. It is badly misshapen & will need to be cleaned & creased. Will follow up later.

 

[John Galt]

This set of photos are of a Stetson Zephyr I finally pulled the trigger on after a price drop and received today. I will post more photos of this hat at a later date & compare to another Stetson Zephyr I have that was made under license in Great Britain.

John

 

[alanfgag]

Very interesting Miracle Felt... looks to be another experiment from the 1940s when materials were scarce and many men were forced to wear a different hat overseas. Looking forward to more photos.

 

[splintercellsz]

Great acquisitions, John!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

My loving Wife "patrols" eBay for mainly vintage items for me, and she sprung this nice purchase she made for me, I am awaiting to see how darn nice this Strat will be, this will add to my overall hat collection, I have one vintage Strat now, this will make number two!

[URL=http://s1140.photobucket.com/user/LoveMyHats2/media/stratoliner_zps6a5fa33a.jpg.html] [/URL][URL=http://s1140.photobucket.com/user/LoveMyHats2/media/stratoliner4_zpsb5e964a1.jpg.html] [/URL][URL=http://s1140.photobucket.com/user/LoveMyHats2/media/stratoliiner6_zps40a52dc1.jpg.html] [/URL][URL=http://s1140.photobucket.com/user/LoveMyHats2/media/stratoliner1_zps8d1161de.jpg.html] [/URL]

 

[splintercellsz]

Daniel, that is sure a beauty!

 

[ManofKent]

Nice finds John - that Stetson looks good.

LoveMyHats2 - You're a lucky man - My wife doesn't use ebay (which is probably a good thing in case she watched my expenditure). Lovely hat.

 

[Brad Bowers]

Very interesting Miracle Felt... looks to be another experiment from the 1940s when materials were scarce and many men were forced to wear a different hat overseas. Looking forward to more photos.

Indeed, though this late-'50s Vagabond is from a different marketing push. The Dobbs and Knox Miracle felts from 1957-1959 all featured a layer of nylon sandwiched between two layers of fur felt to make a lightweight but resilient hat, hence their advertising of being crushable. Hat Corporation of America had a couple of patents on this type of felt, which could use any number of natural or manmade fibers in the middle of the sandwich. The first patent (filed in 1942, received in 1944) was for a traditional blown-in hat cone, though they did file on a patent in 1959 (received in 1964) for something similar, only this felt is needle-felted into a flat sheet and later molded into a hat shape, not blown into a cone and roll-felted with water. A molded crown doesn't seem as conducive to being a crushable hat, so these later Knox and Dobbs hats were probably made all using the '44 patent. I have yet to see a Cavanagh Miracle Felt, if any existed. My Cavanagh Cavorter features the same kind of sweatband, so maybe it could be the Miracle Felt without the name. I don't want to slice into it to find out.

I'm glad these experiments are being conserved by folks!

Brad

 

[jskeen]

Pushed the button on the two of these. I'm actually fairly surprised no one else bid on the second one, which appeared to be NOS.

Don't recall seeing either of these, or I probably would have. Unless they were way out of my price range, which might explain why I didn't see them Nice finds though.

 

[jskeen]

Was going for a trifecta today, but got beat out on two of the 3. I got the one I really wanted, but it represents a new high price point in my trip down that slippery slope unto ruin

The seller was listing 3 estate finds,
This Black Champ,

This Grey Berg, (never even heard of a Berg, but figured if it was cheap enough and they would combine shipping, why not? Ended up not quite cheap enough though. Got sniped at the last second on both.

And My newest;

First Champ in my collection, and it looked either a little older or a little fancier than the black one. I'm curious to see how it stacks up as far as felt and finish quality once I get it. Anybody have an idea on vintage of any of them?

James

 

[splintercellsz]

The Champ, 40's-50's is my guess. Great find, whatever the vintage may be!

 

[alanfgag]

Indeed, though this late-'50s Vagabond is from a different marketing push...

Brad

:yo:

Brad, a tip of the hat to you and the wealth of knowledge that you add here.

 

[hatsRme]

:yo:

Brad, a tip of the hat to you and the wealth of knowledge that you add here.

Hear Hear!!

 

[Rick Blaine]

fascinating

indeed, though this late-'50s vagabond is from a different marketing push. The dobbs and knox miracle felts from 1957-1959 all featured a layer of nylon sandwiched between two layers of fur felt to make a lightweight but resilient hat, hence their advertising of being crushable. Hat corporation of america had a couple of patents on this type of felt, which could use any number of natural or manmade fibers in the middle of the sandwich. The first patent (filed in 1942, received in 1944) was for a traditional blown-in hat cone, though they did file on a patent in 1959 (received in 1964) for something similar, only this felt is needle-felted into a flat sheet and later molded into a hat shape, not blown into a cone and roll-felted with water. A molded crown doesn't seem as conducive to being a crushable hat, so these later knox and dobbs hats were probably made all using the '44 patent. I have yet to see a cavanagh miracle felt, if any existed. My cavanagh cavorter features the same kind of sweatband, so maybe it could be the miracle felt without the name. I don't want to slice into it to find out.

I'm glad these experiments are being conserved by folks!

Brad

 

[splintercellsz]

Very!

 

[Rick Blaine]

New acquisitions

The schmutz on this


truly rare (seemingly)
TRULY WARNER

was a Co'cola or a coffee spit-take from some seventy years ago that flaked off clean with a fingernail leaving very little residue.

The interior had deep golden amber traces of a disintegrated & crumbled long-ago crown liner made of that unstable waxed cloth (or cellulose?) material we're familiar with, barely glimpsed here in the stitching. Perhaps arguing for an earlier date?
Other than these easily remedied (or overlooked) faults the thing is as the day it left the factory, with a calf or kid skin sweat that make today's sweats look like lineman's belts.

I AM wondering if I should take a can of Scout's Dark Hat Cleaner to it... I've had decent luck w/ the light hat cleaner lately, more so than with white gas.



I've been able to find nothing later than this '40 ad mentioning the brand. Other than that, as I said, everything I find is '29 or earlier.





AND: Added feature!!!
HAVE AT YOU! THOU ROUGE!-------------------------------------------------------------------
This oddball:

Looks like once the quill pen is removed, that might be a very nice, wide brimmed, high crowned (and hopefully fur felt) beaut'! I feel reasonably certain the "59" mentioned is the true size & the seller's 6 1/2 "measurement" is from side to side... I hope.


If anyone can tell me anything about these two, I'd be grateful!

 

[splintercellsz]

:eusa_clap

 

[John Galt]

Rick Blaine: I agree about the light colored scout cleaner vs white gas/naphtha/Coleman fuel, and it is not toxic.

Brad: Thanks got the info. I recall that one of the ads said something about nylon, but I didn't understand because it was obscured & I didn't pay $ to move the pop-up. I suppose that this is the trick to the double-life also. I hope this hat is as shapeable. I really do love the double-life, and find myself reshaping it to suit my mood throughout the day.

Alan: Brad nailed it. The 1940's hat ad, which I did see en toto, was for a wide brimmed woman's hat - quite a different style than this one, and apparently also a matching dress, which was interesting.

 

[John Galt]

Nice finds John - that Stetson looks good.

LoveMyHats2 - You're a lucky man - My wife doesn't use ebay (which is probably a good thing in case she watched my expenditure). Lovely hat.

Thank you. The other one I'll post appears much older to me, but this one is very nice. They are so hard to find at any price, that I was quite glad to pick this one up. I don'ti know which of you gents is The Outdoor Team, but it is good to know that the high sticker price is not always the real price.

 

[mayserwegener]

If anyone can tell me anything about these two, I'd be grateful!

The second one is a Shooting Hat (Schützenhut). They are worn by members of German shooting clubs and very common. This isn't the normal feather. They usually have a rooster feather (Spielhahnfeder) on the snap side (see below). I am not sure who the maker is. Is there a paper label behind the sweatband? My guess would be 1960s maybe 70s.