G.B.Borsalino Fu Lazzaro & C. <1936

[PanosChris]

Today I have something special and it's going to take up quite a few posts to get it all on here. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometime: I happened to stumble upon the Italian State Archive (Archivio centrale della stato) and with some advanced squirreling you can find the archives of The Ministero D'Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio. The ministry was responsible for the trademarks and they have their archive digitalized. So, I dug up the trademarks for GB Borsalino fu Lazzaro for the years 1906, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1919, 1921, 1923, 1925 and 1926. The way these are presented varies, but usually it consists of the image and on a separate page a description or notes. Since this determines which trademarks were introduced at what date, it will help us with dating hats. Unless there is something special to note, I'll just post the images.

1906 (the founding year)
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Thank you Stefan for digging up the Italian trademarks series and sharing with us. Such historical documents often don't get the appreciation they deserve

 

[mayserwegener]

1909

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Stefan, Great research! Thank you for posting all of it here. I need to take a detailed look at it on my laptop.

 

[steur]

Thank you Stefan for digging up the Italian trademarks series and sharing with us. Such historical documents often don't get the appreciation they deserve

Stefan, Great research! Thank you for posting all of it here. I need to take a detailed look at it on my laptop.

Thanks, gentlemen. I'll be posting some more findings in the Italian brands thread.

 

[Francesco1992]

Hello everyone, hope that you all are well and have had a happy Christmas with your families and relatives.

Today I want to show you one of my latest G.B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro finds: a superb example of the production of this house. Spanish market (I think one of the few if not the only one till now), produced for the hat shop "RIVERO" in Santander; model name is RODI (I think we haven't seen it yet), the stunning colours indicated on the label being LEPRE for the felt and C. AGANE for the ribbon.
The size is 5 1/2 French Punti, even if I think the felt during the decades has become narrower reaching a size 5 French Punti. I will try to enlarge it a bit again in the future.
The crown is full and high, the brim is fairly wide, the sweatband very soft and well preserved.
From the features, the manufacturing details and the serial model number I would date it around 1928/1930, but please correct me if you think or have a proof that my dating is incorrect.

Being this one of the most beautiful hats in my collection, I hope that you will like it.

Here some pics with artificial light:

 

[Rmccamey]

Spectacular! The Fu Lazzaro are prized by many of us here on TFL.

Hello everyone, hope that you all are well and have had a happy Christmas with your families and relatives.

Today I want to show you one of my latest G.B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro finds: a superb example of the production of this house. Spanish market (I think one of the few if not the only one till now), produced for the hat shop "RIVERO" in Santander; model name is RODI (I think we haven't seen it yet), the stunning colours indicated on the label being LEPRE for the felt and C. AGANE for the ribbon.
The size is 5 1/2 French Punti, even if I think the felt during the decades has become narrower reaching a size 5 French Punti. I will try to enlarge it a bit again in the future.
The crown is full and high, the brim is fairly wide, the sweatband very soft and well preserved.
From the features, the manufacturing details and the serial model number I would date it around 1928/1930, but please correct me if you think or have a proof that my dating is incorrect.

Being this one of the most beautiful hats in my collection, I hope that you will like it.

Here some pics with artificial light:
View attachment 577422 View attachment 577423 View attachment 577424 View attachment 577425 View attachment 577426 View attachment 577427 View attachment 577428 View attachment 577429 View attachment 577430 View attachment 577431

 

[PanosChris]

Hello everyone, hope that you all are well and have had a happy Christmas with your families and relatives.

Today I want to show you one of my latest G.B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro finds: a superb example of the production of this house. Spanish market (I think one of the few if not the only one till now), produced for the hat shop "RIVERO" in Santander; model name is RODI (I think we haven't seen it yet), the stunning colours indicated on the label being LEPRE for the felt and C. AGANE for the ribbon.
The size is 5 1/2 French Punti, even if I think the felt during the decades has become narrower reaching a size 5 French Punti. I will try to enlarge it a bit again in the future.
The crown is full and high, the brim is fairly wide, the sweatband very soft and well preserved.
From the features, the manufacturing details and the serial model number I would date it around 1928/1930, but please correct me if you think or have a proof that my dating is incorrect.

Being this one of the most beautiful hats in my collection, I hope that you will like it.

Here some pics with artificial light:
View attachment 577422 View attachment 577423 View attachment 577424 View attachment 577425 View attachment 577426 View attachment 577427 View attachment 577428 View attachment 577429 View attachment 577430 View attachment 577431

Fantastic! Great that we still get to see these Italian soft felt oldies from time to time

 

[steur]

Hello everyone, hope that you all are well and have had a happy Christmas with your families and relatives.

Today I want to show you one of my latest G.B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro finds: a superb example of the production of this house. Spanish market (I think one of the few if not the only one till now), produced for the hat shop "RIVERO" in Santander; model name is RODI (I think we haven't seen it yet), the stunning colours indicated on the label being LEPRE for the felt and C. AGANE for the ribbon.
The size is 5 1/2 French Punti, even if I think the felt during the decades has become narrower reaching a size 5 French Punti. I will try to enlarge it a bit again in the future.
The crown is full and high, the brim is fairly wide, the sweatband very soft and well preserved.
From the features, the manufacturing details and the serial model number I would date it around 1928/1930, but please correct me if you think or have a proof that my dating is incorrect.

Being this one of the most beautiful hats in my collection, I hope that you will like it.

Here some pics with artificial light:
View attachment 577422 View attachment 577423 View attachment 577424 View attachment 577425 View attachment 577426 View attachment 577427 View attachment 577428 View attachment 577429 View attachment 577430 View attachment 577431

ANother fabulous example, Francesco. I don't know how you keep finding them, but please keep doing so.

 

[Mighty44]

Hello everyone, hope that you all are well and have had a happy Christmas with your families and relatives.

Today I want to show you one of my latest G.B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro finds: a superb example of the production of this house. Spanish market (I think one of the few if not the only one till now), produced for the hat shop "RIVERO" in Santander; model name is RODI (I think we haven't seen it yet), the stunning colours indicated on the label being LEPRE for the felt and C. AGANE for the ribbon.
The size is 5 1/2 French Punti, even if I think the felt during the decades has become narrower reaching a size 5 French Punti. I will try to enlarge it a bit again in the future.
The crown is full and high, the brim is fairly wide, the sweatband very soft and well preserved.
From the features, the manufacturing details and the serial model number I would date it around 1928/1930, but please correct me if you think or have a proof that my dating is incorrect.

Being this one of the most beautiful hats in my collection, I hope that you will like it.

Here some pics with artificial light:
View attachment 577422 View attachment 577423 View attachment 577424 View attachment 577425 View attachment 577426 View attachment 577427 View attachment 577428 View attachment 577429 View attachment 577430 View attachment 577431

Fantastic—wow!

 

[Francesco1992]

ANother fabulous example, Francesco. I don't know how you keep finding them, but please keep doing so.

Dear Stefan, thank you so much from the deepest of my heart! The passion I have for pre-war felts is huge, and even bigger is the passion for the G.B. Borsalino Fu Lazzaro production (this is mostly thanks to you guys obviously! ). I think this factory produced some of the best quality hats of that time; sometimes even a better quality, in my opinion, than the Antica Casa: every time I purchase a Fu Lazzaro is always a big emotion, and an even bigger emotion is to share them with you all.
Furthermore, your comments always help me feel motivated in looking for them and finding them all around Europe and the world. Anyway, I still have a good 6/7 Borsalino fu Lazzaro felts that I haven't shared here yet, so I am looking forward to posting them as soon as possible! Thanks as always for your beautiful words!

 

[PanosChris]

Dear Stefan, thank you so much from the deepest of my heart! The passion I have for pre-war felts is huge, and even bigger is the passion for the G.B. Borsalino Fu Lazzaro production (this is mostly thanks to you guys obviously! ). I think this factory produced some of the best quality hats of that time; sometimes even a better quality, in my opinion, than the Antica Casa: every time I purchase a Fu Lazzaro is always a big emotion, and an even bigger emotion is to share them with you all.
Furthermore, your comments always help me feel motivated in looking for them and finding them all around Europe and the world. Anyway, I still have a good 6/7 Borsalino fu Lazzaro felts that I haven't shared here yet, so I am looking forward to posting them as soon as possible! Thanks as always for your beautiful words!

Yeah, keep going! The tiny sizes are even more exciting

 

[Francesco1992]

Good evening (here in Italy) everyone and very pleased to meet you again with my next Borsalino Fu Lazzaro.
This time I want to show you a very particular model that, unfortunately, lost its label who knows where in the last decades, and so we can’t have fun documenting its features and associating them with an italian city name.
As said before this model seems to be fairly particular: pretty much worn, produced for the italian market, more specifically for the hat shop GUIDO ROSSI in VERONA (dear @Daniele Tanto, do you remember this shop and do you know when it closed?); even if it is labeled as a 5 1/2, the actual size is 6 French Punti (59cm) and it has got a very very high, full but narrow crown which I have rarely seen before (it has been very difficult to give him a decent shape); we can also see the particular “opaque” silk ribbon with no bow on the side and a fantastic champagne-pink liner in the inner part of the hat, making me think of an elegant high-level quality production. This is particularly difficult to place in time because of the lack of its label, but from features of it (including the black size label glued on the sweatband like this) I am pretty sure it belongs to a first half-to mid 1930s production.
With this hat I have been particularly lucky because I found it in a city very very near to me.
I am really curious about what you think of that “strange” crown and about the hat in general!

Here some photos with natural light:

 

[PanosChris]

Good evening (here in Italy) everyone and very pleased to meet you again with my next Borsalino Fu Lazzaro.
This time I want to show you a very particular model that, unfortunately, lost its label who knows where in the last decades, and so we can’t have fun documenting its features and associating them with an italian city name.
As said before this model seems to be fairly particular: pretty much worn, produced for the italian market, more specifically for the hat shop GUIDO ROSSI in VERONA (dear @Daniele Tanto, do you remember this shop and do you know when it closed?); even if it is labeled as a 5 1/2, the actual size is 6 French Punti (59cm) and it has got a very very high, full but narrow crown which I have rarely seen before (it has been very difficult to give him a decent shape); we can also see the particular “opaque” silk ribbon with no bow on the side and a fantastic champagne-pink liner in the inner part of the hat, making me think of an elegant high-level quality production. This is particularly difficult to place in time because of the lack of its label, but from features of it (including the black size label glued on the sweatband like this) I am pretty sure it belongs to a first half-to mid 1930s production.
With this hat I have been particularly lucky because I found it in a city very very near to me.
I am really curious about what you think of that “strange” crown and about the hat in general!

Here some photos with natural light:

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The high tapered crown was pretty common on the very early up/rolled-brimmed/transitional style soft felts

From American catalogs, late 1800s-very early 1900s

Judging by style itself doesn't always do it right and I don't know if the size label or any other particular detail narrows it down to a certain decade, but I would think it's earlier (quite) than '30s

 

[Rmccamey]

Here is a similar crease.

 

[Daniele Tanto]

As said before this model seems to be fairly particular: pretty much worn, produced for the italian market, more specifically for the hat shop GUIDO ROSSI in VERONA (dear @Daniele Tanto, do you remember this shop and do you know when it closed?)

Yes, Francesco I remember the Guido Rossi hat shop which, if I'm not mistaken, changed its name at a certain point. It closed, like many shops in the 80s, when the large chains began to invade the shopping streets of Verona which went from being city-based to becoming more touristy. It was in Via Mazzini, if I remember correctly. Now the street is just a tourist emporium.
Regarding your considerations on the quality of G.B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro in the construction of hats, I agree, but remembering that the Italian producers of those years competed to take market shares in the high price range and then find themselves, G.B. Borsalino company is the most striking case having to deal with the consequences of not having a large audience. On the other hand they pursued the path of working for the same social classes that Giuseppe Borsalino served, but with an eye also to the middle market which was his strength for a long time with the diversification too
The hat in question is very nice and to have an appropriate idea of what the models were in those years, Stefan (steur) published the Borsalino catalog dating back to the early twentieth century a few weeks ago. You can find the models of the rebellious cousins who were largely inspired by the parent company. The design of the crown with its pronounced taper is very much a product of that time, where German hunting hats were imitated with the interpretation that each hatter gave according to personal taste.
The open crown has never been a prerogative of Italian or European hats. Here the discussion could get too long...It was and is a question of felt

 

[steur]

Good evening (here in Italy) everyone and very pleased to meet you again with my next Borsalino Fu Lazzaro.
This time I want to show you a very particular model that, unfortunately, lost its label who knows where in the last decades, and so we can’t have fun documenting its features and associating them with an italian city name.
As said before this model seems to be fairly particular: pretty much worn, produced for the italian market, more specifically for the hat shop GUIDO ROSSI in VERONA (dear @Daniele Tanto, do you remember this shop and do you know when it closed?); even if it is labeled as a 5 1/2, the actual size is 6 French Punti (59cm) and it has got a very very high, full but narrow crown which I have rarely seen before (it has been very difficult to give him a decent shape); we can also see the particular “opaque” silk ribbon with no bow on the side and a fantastic champagne-pink liner in the inner part of the hat, making me think of an elegant high-level quality production. This is particularly difficult to place in time because of the lack of its label, but from features of it (including the black size label glued on the sweatband like this) I am pretty sure it belongs to a first half-to mid 1930s production.
With this hat I have been particularly lucky because I found it in a city very very near to me.
I am really curious about what you think of that “strange” crown and about the hat in general!

Here some photos with natural light:

View attachment 578582 View attachment 578583 View attachment 578584 View attachment 578585 View attachment 578586 View attachment 578589 View attachment 578588

Another great find, Francesco and a pleasure to see. Not much to add to what the others have said already, except that I think the ribbon might be a replacement. It seems unlikely to me that GB Borsalino would use petersham ribbon instead of proper grosgrain and the bow seems a little too simple for a company that aimed as high as they did.

 

[Daniele Tanto]

The passion I have for pre-war felts is huge, and even bigger is the passion for the G.B. Borsalino Fu Lazzaro production (this is mostly thanks to you guys obviously!

Francesco, it is certainly interesting to collect hats of at least eighty years ago, but, from direct experience, there are few left, especially in the countries where the war has passed. Some come remodeled, reworked or the felt has served to build a "new" hat. See how this black G.B. Borsalino "hunter" shape has, as suggested by Stefan, a ribbon certainly not of the time when the hat was built, or the two recent Borsalino that were reconstructions with pieces of different hats assembled to be sold. I too have had similar, few, but interesting and significant experiences to understand how the life of a hat can become different since it was built. I think it is essential to know the production of the brand to have the ability to be able to discern if the hat is worth it. In my collector experience with the G.B. Borsalino who concluded his life about ninety years ago , I found many bowlers, much less soft felts often, given age, in not particularly good conditions, therefore I bought and sold according to my collector's taste, as well as for other important Italian brands. It is for this reason that I have never had a particular brand to collect, but I have always bought the hats that I liked most (every age), perhaps with the addition of some uninteresting remaining and the result is to have an overview of certain periods of the immense history of the Italian hats production, the most fruitful and present in the world of fashion accessories for at least one hundred years. The great attraction, for me, is to have hats in hand that tell me the story of an art that was fundamental here for the sustained numerous families and an excellent peculiarity of the Italian "fashion" ante litteram.

 

[steur]

Here's something a bit special. I stumbled upon it while looking for images of GB Borsalino fu Lazzaro advertising. It was for sale, so I had to get it. Special thanks to Brent @deadlyhandsome who was more than a stopover (the shipping costs quoted by the seller would more or less cover delivering it in person) but very generously sent it my way and took care of the costs, Thanks again, Brent.

"How hats are made" published by GB Borsalino fu Lazzaro

Judging by the logos used it was published in 1926 or later. It is only a small booklet, measuring 16,5cm by 13,5cm (6 1/2 by about 5 1/4 inch) but an interesting piece of hat history nonetheless. Depending on the size of your monitor the pics here are bigger than the actual booklet.

 

[steur]

Part II

 

[steur]

Part III

 

[steur]

Part IV