German & Austrian Hutmachers

[besdor]

You fellow loungers in Germany are finding some great hats.The Huckels here are basicaly the modern day junk that are hard as a rock. I know that Huckel made some beautiful hats years ago as we used to sell them in our store. Unfortunately what we see here today is not what you guys get in Europe due to the distributor here buying the low end quality.


Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[le.gentleman]

Mario, den hatte ich auch beobachtet - aber nicht gesteigert, da er mir viel zu klein ist. Im Text steht "Unter dem Schweißband ist ein Schild - Gr. 56! (gemessen habe ich aber 55, ...), Farbe: 614, Nr.: 56681 / 11998, Stempel: 18.5.1961"
Zu schade, dass er leichten Mottenbefall hat, aber für so wenig Geld ist immer noch ein guter Kauf!

 

[le.gentleman]

Here is another Mayser - it was a new old stock hat and it still had a price tag that said 170 DM I called the lady from the had shop and she said that it was from the late 60s or early 70s Taking that into consideration, this hat would be quite expensive today:

 

[mayserwegener]

I just arrived home from a folk, roots and worldmusic festival here in Germany - just in time to find find that, a few hours ago, while I was on the road, heading home, my sniper scored this beautiful Mayser for me. It probably dates back to the late 50s, maybe early 60s. It's a size 7. The color (NOT the felt finish!) is called Antilope. 13.10 € inlcuding shipping.

I'll take some photos as soon as the prey has been savely hidden in my lair...

That is really nice! I really like the color and the felt looks soft. Is it pliable? Should be nice for the summer. Look forward to seeing your pictures.

Here is another Mayser - it was a new old stock hat and it still had a price tag that said 170 DM I called the lady from the had shop and she said that it was from the late 60s or early 70s Taking that into consideration, this hat would be quite expensive today:

Another nice one! That is a cool box bow and interesting sweat.

 

[Mario]

Mario, den hatte ich auch beobachtet - aber nicht gesteigert, da er mir viel zu klein ist. Im Text steht "Unter dem Schweißband ist ein Schild - Gr. 56! (gemessen habe ich aber 55, ...), Farbe: 614, Nr.: 56681 / 11998, Stempel: 18.5.1961"
Zu schade, dass er leichten Mottenbefall hat, aber für so wenig Geld ist immer noch ein guter Kauf!

What can I say? I have a rather smallish melon resting on my shoulders, ranging from somwhere between 6 3/4 and 7 (sometimes with padding). This one looked so beautiful, I just had to go for it.

What's more: I didn't really read the info! So the hat is from May, 18, 1961...I just missed that exact date...

Anyway: It's a really beautiful hat. Full stop.

le.gentleman: I really like that brown Mayser! I have a light gray one from the 60s with a similiar bow

 

[Dreispitz]

A. Loos/A. Opel on Austrian hatts 1898

Here is an interesting article on the state of the Austrian hat industry and fashion of 1898. The author Adolf Loos goes on about the fashion dictate of the Austrian Hat Society - Österreichischer Hutverein - and it´s inhibiting influence on the hat industry in international export terms. Until then, it was common for the society to twice a year come together and define the following hat fashion. There obviousy was a transition going on from local conservativism in hat production towards international styles. It is also mentioned, that the Prince of Wales made traditional Austrian mountain style hats fashionable in England! So, now we know how the mountain styles entered the Anglo Saxon hatworld. It started in the 19c.

Here is the Link You have to scroll backwards!

 

[mayserwegener]

Hückel info from Nový Jičín(Neutitschein) Museum

I received some very good information (Thanks le.gentleman!) regarding Hückel from the the museum in Nový Jičín(Neutitschein). I sent a reply with a bunch of follow-up questions (how to tell where the hat was made post WWII, difference between modes, felt content).

>>
Hello,

thank you for you interest. Your questions are very simple.

1. Hutfabrik Johann Hückel´s Söhne had four manufacturing sites prior to the end fo WW II.

Neutitschein (today Nový Jičín) - headquarters
Skoczów(in Czech Skočov)- today a part of Poland
Racibórz (in Czech Ratiboř)- today a part of Poland
Wien - Austria

2. After WWII the family Hückel builded hut factory in the Weilheim in
Germany. The iniciator was Fritz Hückel.

3. The hutfabriks in Nový Jičín (and in the all Czechoslovakia) was nationalized in 1945. The new hut company get a name TONAK (Továrna na klobouky – translation – first letters of hut company in Czech). Today it is a join stock company ... http://www.tonak.cz/index.php?typ=TSB&showid=7

In Nový Jičín were three big hut companies – Hückel, Peschel and Böhm. WWW pages about Böhm hut company: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~prohel/stories/bohmfac.html

4. Tonak has a trade mark of Hückel´s Company from the fifties of 20th Century.

5. Your hat is from the production of Hückel in 1938-1945. Our city was a part of Germany from September 1938 as a Sudetenland. Your hat is from the best of quality known as Hückel Superior, the year 1799 is the date of birth of Hückels hut company. Paris Grand Prix 1900 is the term of one of many prices from national exhibitions, where Hückel company won gold medal. Same type was produced after WW II, we have a same hat of president Edvard Beneš from 1945 in our exhibition. Your hat was produced in Nový Jičín.

Today we will prepare a new big exhibition about Hückel, this year we will celebrate 210 years from the founding. A part of this will be a catalogue about Hückel´s hut company.

Sincerely,
>>

Some info I dug up on the Hückel family. This is rough because it is translated from Czech.

Czech » English

HÜCKEL August - Entrepreneur
* 17 6. 1838 Novy Jicin
+ 5. 8. 1917 Novy Jicin
Since in 1868 the company co-Hutfabrik Johann Hückels Söhne, where in the same year he founded the sickness fund. With the brothers reached that in 1910 the firm produced 2,000 employees and 5,000 hats a day, which had exported to all continents. Specialty of the house was black velurový hat that Jews wear and which is in Eastern Europe called hykel. August gathered extensive art collection, the benefactor of art and 1910, he became an honorary citizen of New Jičín. With the brothers founded the town poorhouse.

HÜCKEL Augustin - hatter
* 20 9. 1786 Fulnek
+ 14. 4. 1848 Novy Jicin
Within the tovaryšského vandru procestoval Europe and met with the technical progress of the craft. Since 1808 Champion has been kloboučnickým in Fulnek and since 1811 in Novy Jicin, where his brother cechmistrem. Johann Augustinův son of the brothers joined, and later founded a factory for the manufacture of hats.

HÜCKEL Fritz - techniques
* 22 6. 1885 Novy Jicin
+ 12. 1. 1973 Munich (Germany)
Son of Augusta Hückela who studied engineering and studied the structure malolitrážních cars, but since 1945, after the relocation of family hat business to Dingolfingu and Weilheimu in Upper Bavaria, led this company. After his death led her sons Fritz August (* 28 12th 1910 Novy Jicin) and Peter (* 18 4th 1912 Novy Jicin). Operation of the company was stopped in 1975.

HÜCKEL Johann - Entrepreneur
* 20 3. 1843 Novy Jicin
+ 18. 11. 1917 Novy Jicin
Since in 1868 the company co-Hutfabrik Johann Hückels Söhne. With the brothers reached that in 1910 the firm produced 2,000 employees and 5,000 hats a day, which had exported to all continents. Specialty of the house was black velurový hat that Jews wear and which is in Eastern Europe called hykel. With the brothers founded the town poorhouse.

HÜCKEL Johann - Entrepreneur
* 7 4. 1814 Fulnek
+ 14. 1. 1880 Novy Jicin
In 1835 the workshop took the hat uncle Johann Nepomuk, and in 1848 to join her father's workshop. Founded in 1865 in Novy Jicin chief engineer on the factory production of hats in the Habsburg monarchy. Three years later, to the management of factories and their three sons, the company changed its name to Hutfabrik Johann Hückels Söhne. Its products won medals soon exhibitions in Vienna, Paris and Philadelphia and Johann Hückel received in 1877 the Golden Cross of Merit.

HÜCKEL Johann Nepomuk - cechmistr
* 2 5. 1779 Fulnek
+ Novy Jicin
Son hatter. In 1799 he was awarded a master right from the workshop in 1805 on the square in Novy Jicin, and soon there was cechmistrem. Later he became a member of the guild novojického his brother Augustin, whose son after the death of two brothers joined their facility, thereby laying the foundation hat manufacture.

HÜCKEL Karl - Entrepreneur
* 18 1. 1850 Novy Jicin
+ 19. 12. 1919 Novy Jicin
He reálku in Opava, learned the saddler in Vienna and in 1868 the company was co-Hutfabrik Johann Hückels Söhne. From 1876 he studied in Philadelphia America's technology and service organization of factories, but attended for this purpose and hat factories in England, Belgium, France and Germany. Supported as a humanitarian institution founded by brothers town poorhouse. A benefactor of young artists and in 1910 became an honorary citizen of New Jičín.
> swap

 

[mayserwegener]

Hückel Homburg Exclusiv + Case

My Hückel Homburg Exclusiv + case arrived yesterday. I took a chance on size (58cm) but it fits perfectly. The quality of this hat is amazing. Not quite at the level of my Hückel Fedora Superior but very close. I am thinking late 50s on this one. There is no paper label I could find or stamp marking origin. I asked about this hat (and others posted on this thread) in my reply back to the Nový Jičín museum.

 

[mayserwegener]

Hückel Homburg Exclusiv + Case (cont.)

 

[le.gentleman]

I received some very good information (Thanks le.gentleman!) regarding Hückel from the the museum in Nový Jičín(Neutitschein). I sent a reply with a bunch of follow-up questions (how to tell where the hat was made post WWII, difference between modes, felt content).

>>
Hello,

thank you for you interest. Your questions are very simple.

1. Hutfabrik Johann Hückel´s Söhne had four manufacturing sites prior to the end fo WW II.

Neutitschein (today Nový Jičín) - headquarters
Skoczów(in Czech Skočov)- today a part of Poland
Racibórz (in Czech Ratiboř)- today a part of Poland
Wien - Austria

2. After WWII the family Hückel builded hut factory in the Weilheim in
Germany. The iniciator was Fritz Hückel.

3. The hutfabriks in Nový Jičín (and in the all Czechoslovakia) was nationalized in 1945. The new hut company get a name TONAK (Továrna na klobouky – translation – first letters of hut company in Czech). Today it is a join stock company ... http://www.tonak.cz/index.php?typ=TSB&showid=7

In Nový Jičín were three big hut companies – Hückel, Peschel and Böhm. WWW pages about Böhm hut company: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~prohel/stories/bohmfac.html

4. Tonak has a trade mark of Hückel´s Company from the fifties of 20th Century.

5. Your hat is from the production of Hückel in 1938-1945. Our city was a part of Germany from September 1938 as a Sudetenland. Your hat is from the best of quality known as Hückel Superior, the year 1799 is the date of birth of Hückels hut company. Paris Grand Prix 1900 is the term of one of many prices from national exhibitions, where Hückel company won gold medal. Same type was produced after WW II, we have a same hat of president Edvard Beneš from 1945 in our exhibition. Your hat was produced in Nový Jičín.

Today we will prepare a new big exhibition about Hückel, this year we will celebrate 210 years from the founding. A part of this will be a catalogue about Hückel´s hut company.

Sincerely,
>>

Awesome! Sometimes the good old way of asking a question is worth more than hours of research on the internet.

As you alredy wrote, them I will not send them another one. Let us know about the post WWII hats, I'd be interested in that.

 

[Dreispitz]

My Hückel Homburg Exclusiv + case arrived yesterday. I took a chance on size (58cm) but it fits perfectly. The quality of this hat is amazing. Not quite at the level of my Hückel Fedora Superior but very close. I am thinking late 50s on this one. There is no paper label I could find or stamp marking origin. I asked about this hat (and others posted on this thread) in my reply back to the Nový Jičín museum.

Interesting! My Super Sport was also sold through Stattmann of Stuttgart. Since there are no records of the shop existing after WWII, it should be pre 1945!

 

[le.gentleman]

Another Hückel:

 

[mayserwegener]

Interesting! My Super Sport was also sold through Stattmann of Stuttgart. Since there are no records of the shop existing after WWII, it should be pre 1945!

The hat just looks 50s to me from the sweat and plastic protection behind it. I asked about this hat in my reply back to the the Nový Jičín museum. I also asked about your Super Sport and Mercur. All I can say is that the older Hückels have to be some of the highest quality hats ever made.

Awesome! Sometimes the good old way of asking a question is worth more than hours of research on the internet.

As you alredy wrote, them I will not send them another one. Let us know about the post WWII hats, I'd be interested in that.

You had a great idea contacting the museum. I don't think TONAK would be as cooperative because of what went down after WWII. I hope I didn't get too carried away with my follow-up though. I made inquiries about your and Dreispitz's hats. I will let you know what or if I hear back.

 

[besdor]

Meyserwegner, where did you get that Huckel hatbox? I started to drool when I saw the hat and the box. I have very few vintage Huckel hats.




Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[mayserwegener]

Meyserwegner, where did you get that Huckel hatbox? I started to drool when I saw the hat and the box. I have very few vintage Huckel hats.




Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

I won the case and the hat on German eBay for 21.00 euros! The hat looks like it was hardly ever worn.

 

[mayserwegener]

Another Hückel:

Very classy! The liner looks similar to the Homburg Exclusiv I just posted. What does it say under Hückel? Is the liner sewn in and does it have a plastic protector behind the sweat? Also a paper label with any info?

 

[mayserwegener]

Bronnold Fedora

I also received the late 50s brown Bronnold (new company to me) Fedora. It is a size 58cm but luckily it fits. This one is new old stock but had a little damage to the felt and stitching (removed) on the upper part of the ribbon. It must have been sandwiched between other hats. It has a nice sewn in liner and very nice sweat.

 

[mayserwegener]

Fränkel (Wien) Fedora

I picked up a haul of new old stock hats from a friend in Germany. One of them is from a Austrian company I had never heard of by the name of Fränkel (Wien).

I found this info on Fränkel.

http://www.hutfabrik.biz/history/index.html

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_url?doit=done&tt=url&intl=1&fr=bf-res&trurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hutfabrik.biz%2Fhistory%2Findex.html&lp=de_en&btnTrUrl=Translate

What is interesting is they were involved with Brüder Böhm Hüte originally of Nový Jičín(Neutitschein). There is some info on them farther back in the thread.

 

[mayserwegener]

Here is an interesting article on the state of the Austrian hat industry and fashion of 1898. The author Adolf Loos goes on about the fashion dictate of the Austrian Hat Society - Österreichischer Hutverein - and it´s inhibiting influence on the hat industry in international export terms. Until then, it was common for the society to twice a year come together and define the following hat fashion. There obviousy was a transition going on from local conservativism in hat production towards international styles. It is also mentioned, that the Prince of Wales made traditional Austrian mountain style hats fashionable in England! So, now we know how the mountain styles entered the Anglo Saxon hatworld. It started in the 19c.

Great find! I wish I knew German better but I am thankful for your overview!

 

[le.gentleman]

Mayser is still producing hats, that's why I sent them an email with a few questions yesterday - we'll see when I hear back from them. Of course I also look forward to what the hat museum has to say about Hückel hats.
mayserwegener - you were lucky to get the Hückel in superior quality for a bargain - well done!