French Hats and makers.

[steur]

Stefan, Great find! It has a fantastic form. I really like the bow design / work. Overall super!

Steve, thank you. I was well pleased to find this one.

 

[Redfokker]

Picked this one up last week. It was listed as a bowler (and used as such), but it didn't look like a bowler to me. Tirard Fréres Supra homburg in black. Size 57 with a brim at 6cm and the crown 10,5 cm at the pinch. It's an earlier one, because it still has the name Tirard Fréres in the liner and sweatband. I have another Tirard which just has Tirard as the brand name. I cannot find anything useful on the brand online however, so I can't tell when the change happened.

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Very nice Stefan. It is good to see an example of a fine French hat. Superb!

 

[steur]

Very nice Stefan. It is good to see an example of a fine French hat. Superb!

Thanks, Mike. I had to add it to the fold; these Tirard hats are rare and it looks to be an early one. It bugs me I can't find anything useful on French hatting though (they're supposed to be chauvinistic about everything French).

 

[moehawk]

This Tirard Frères bowler was on my Etsy watch list for a month or two. It looked a little beat up, and had a weird looking wide band on it, but it just had a certain charm and a cool looking sweatband, so I thought I'd buy it and see if I could fix it up and make a new ribbon for it. It arrived last Friday, a bit more dinged and dimpled than I thought it would be. Underneath the weird cloth band, however, was the original ribbon and bow. And a couple more dents...
After several bouts with the Jiffy I have straightened it out considerably. Still a few spots that need some TLC but overall wearable. Quite a bit of work, but these Tirards are nice enought to warrant it.
The Tirard Frères "ELF".

Insides

Stickers

The crown is 4 7/8", the brim 2". The brim is has a steel wire around the edge. The thin, beautifully textured sweatband is in great shape. It has a super narrow reed. Second pic is the back of the Tirard Frères stamp to show thinness of the leather.

At 125g, it is my lightest weight bowler by about an ounce. Not surprising that it was so dented, as the felt is fairly thin.
Head shots

French hats are tough to date, but I'm guessing 20's. if anyone has better knowledge please share!

Powered by happy thoughts

 

[mayserwegener]

John, Great find! Also good recovery job.

 

[moehawk]

John, Great find! Also good recovery job.

Thanks Steve!
The Jiffy steamer makes all the difference with undenting and dedimpling these stiff felts.

 

[splintercellsz]

This Tirard Frères bowler was on my Etsy watch list for a month or two. It looked a little beat up, and had a weird looking wide band on it, but it just had a certain charm and a cool looking sweatband, so I thought I'd buy it and see if I could fix it up and make a new ribbon for it. It arrived last Friday, a bit more dinged and dimpled than I thought it would be. Underneath the weird cloth band, however, was the original ribbon and bow. And a couple more dents...
After several bouts with the Jiffy I have straightened it out considerably. Still a few spots that need some TLC but overall wearable. Quite a bit of work, but these Tirards are nice enought to warrant it.
The Tirard Frères "ELF".

Insides

Stickers

The crown is 4 7/8", the brim 2". The brim is has a steel wire around the edge. The thin, beautifully textured sweatband is in great shape. It has a super narrow reed. Second pic is the back of the Tirard Frères stamp to show thinness of the leather.

At 125g, it is my lightest weight bowler by about an ounce. Not surprising that it was so dented, as the felt is fairly thin.
Head shots

French hats are tough to date, but I'm guessing 20's. if anyone has better knowledge please share!

Powered by happy thoughts

terrific!!!!

 

[moehawk]

terrific!!!!

Thanks!

 

[steur]

This Tirard Frères bowler was on my Etsy watch list for a month or two. It looked a little beat up, and had a weird looking wide band on it, but it just had a certain charm and a cool looking sweatband, so I thought I'd buy it and see if I could fix it up and make a new ribbon for it. It arrived last Friday, a bit more dinged and dimpled than I thought it would be. Underneath the weird cloth band, however, was the original ribbon and bow. And a couple more dents...
After several bouts with the Jiffy I have straightened it out considerably. Still a few spots that need some TLC but overall wearable. Quite a bit of work, but these Tirards are nice enought to warrant it.
The Tirard Frères "ELF".

Insides

Stickers

The crown is 4 7/8", the brim 2". The brim is has a steel wire around the edge. The thin, beautifully textured sweatband is in great shape. It has a super narrow reed. Second pic is the back of the Tirard Frères stamp to show thinness of the leather.

At 125g, it is my lightest weight bowler by about an ounce. Not surprising that it was so dented, as the felt is fairly thin.
Head shots

French hats are tough to date, but I'm guessing 20's. if anyone has better knowledge please share!

Powered by happy thoughts

Nice find, John and good job bringing it back to glory. The cloth band is probably its mourning band. Like this one.

 

[moehawk]

Nice find, John and good job bringing it back to glory. The cloth band is probably its mourning band. Like this one.

Thanks Stefan!
Yes, that looks like the band that was on it. I thought maybe somebody had tried to make it look more "hip" at some point in time.

 

[steur]

It took me ages to finally find a Mossant hat, as they are few and far between for some obscure reason. This is my second one and one I almost left, thinking it was black at first (the shop was dimly lit). Holding it next to a black hat I saw that it was really dark grey, so it had to come. It turned out to be quite a little gem.
Mossant in dark grey, called tourbe (peat) on the label. Unlined and with a stitched brim at 6cm and crown at 10cm at the pinch. Lovely lightweight felt hat.

 

[RJR]

It took me ages to finally find a Mossant hat, as they are few and far between for some obscure reason. This is my second one and one I almost left, thinking it was black at first (the shop was dimly lit). Holding it next to a black hat I saw that it was really dark grey, so it had to come. It turned out to be quite a little gem.
Mossant in dark grey, called tourbe (peat) on the label. Unlined and with a stitched brim at 6cm and crown at 10cm at the pinch. Lovely lightweight felt hat.


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I really like that hat,very nice.

 

[steur]

I really like that hat,very nice.

Thank you, Bob. Makes it easier to see why the brand was so big in its day.

 

[Daniele Tanto]

It took me sometimes to finally have this Flechet ready.

This came, old-new stock from the Strasbourg "A. Meer" hats shop field. The felt is heather astounding color, between various greys and black

I almost forget it, because it was sized as 60 cm. but it was really wide and remained some years sit back in the closet
thinking I have to find the right hatter to dimension it for my head.

Fleur of Penumbra hats in Netherland made an excellent job and now the hat fits well with a slightly new shape

Flechet in dark heather grey. Unlined and with a overseams brim at 5.5cm and crown at 11.5cm at the pinch, ribbon is 3.5 cm. with a lovely bow.

Lovely medium weight felt hat ready for the autumn

 

[RJR]

It took me sometimes to finally have this Flechet ready.

This came, old-new stock from the Strasbourg "A. Meer" hats shop field. The felt is heather astounding color, between various greys and black

I almost forget it, because it was sized as 60 cm. but it was really wide and remained some years sit back in the closet
thinking I have to find the right hatter to dimension it for my head.

Fleur of Penumbra hats in Netherland made an excellent job and now the hat fits well with a slightly new shape

Flechet in dark heather grey. Unlined and with a overseams brim at 5.5cm and crown at 11.5cm at the pinch, ribbon is 3.5 cm. with a lovely bow.

Lovely medium weight felt hat ready for the autumn

Nice.

 

[Windsock8e]

I picked up this beaver Mossant earlier this year. I have another Mossant which I prefer in height of crown, but this one has this dense hand to it and lovely liner and sweat.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Daniele Tanto]

This hat was a bet, even better a difficult project carried out despite the hat was not my size.
Thank especially to Fleur owner of the Penumbra hat who patiently saved this gem with avery professional work

The hat arrived in Italy in quite disastrous conditions, especially the lining was stained black for too much exposure of the hat to the water. The sweatband was dry, while the beautiful velour felt needed to be put back on its feet

Here is the result: a perfect lining, with a nourished sweatband and the velour is majesty

The hat only show an indication BHV on the lining and no paper label is under the sweatband

The shiny black velvet felt is solid and full-bodied with exceptional quality. The hat could have been built in the 1920s for its dimensions which are: raw brim at 6 cm. crown at 12 cm. and 5 cm is the ribbon.

Its size is 56 cm. for my total misfortune and for the luck of someone who, having this size, will want to buy it.

 

[mayserwegener]

Daniele, Fantastic! The Velour looks great. Also very impressed by Penumbra taking on the restore projects and delivering great + timely results.

 

[mayserwegener]

I picked up this beaver Mossant earlier this year. I have another Mossant which I prefer in height of crown, but this one has this dense hand to it and lovely liner and sweat.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Great to see this one too! Super!

 

[mayserwegener]

It took me sometimes to finally have this Flechet ready.

This came, old-new stock from the Strasbourg "A. Meer" hats shop field. The felt is heather astounding color, between various greys and black

I almost forget it, because it was sized as 60 cm. but it was really wide and remained some years sit back in the closet
thinking I have to find the right hatter to dimension it for my head.

Fleur of Penumbra hats in Netherland made an excellent job and now the hat fits well with a slightly new shape

Flechet in dark heather grey. Unlined and with a overseams brim at 5.5cm and crown at 11.5cm at the pinch, ribbon is 3.5 cm. with a lovely bow.

Lovely medium weight felt hat ready for the autumn

Daniele, Great felt and form! Again props to Fleur of Penumbra Hats.