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German & Austrian Hutmachers

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17,524
Location
Maryland
Ottmar Reich "100 Years" (1938)

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Daniele Tanto

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,254
Location
Verona - Italia
Beautiful celebration of the centennial monograph of Hottmar Reich.
It 's very interesting to see the types of hat for sale and above all the work done to get the straw suitable to build the hats that are a constant of the peasantry in Old Europe since thirty years ago, even if in the italian plains an hills sometimes you can see old farmers (men and women) with "trilbies&fedora" in rough straw.
 
Messages
17,524
Location
Maryland
Manfred, Thanks! I am working on the Ottmar Reich translation.

Richard, Thanks! I wish! :)

Mike, Thanks! Would be amazing to find one like that!

Daniele, Thanks! There is some interesting information in the Ottmar Reich book. The straw hat making tradition in that area came from Italy (via horse traders in the early 1600s). I hope to get up a rough translation of the book.
 

Huertecilla

Banned
Messages
347
Location
Mountains of southern Spain
the hats that are a constant of the peasantry in Old Europe since thirty years ago, even if in the italian plains an hills sometimes you can see old farmers (men and women) with "trilbies&fedora" in rough straw.

They are all over the place here too. It is survival wear during several months of the year, starting about now for the olive harvesters. All open, ´breeze´ weave so as to offer protection from the son and allow for any air movement to pass trough. As they are 100% utalitarian they are cheap and pretty bad quality. I have a dozen of them in various states of decay.
save for the ´woven fron plant fibres´ they have nothing in common with Montecristi hats, but they are inevitably heaped together on the same pile. More so because the type is part of the British pensioner costa uniform and they wear the whole spectrum, further diffusing distinctions
 

Daniele Tanto

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,254
Location
Verona - Italia
Steve would be interesting to hear what's monograph Hottmar Reich tells us of the construction of the straw hats with the base product from Italy. Yesterday I found interesting information about the interweaving of straw in Tuscany and the Marche. I'll try to translate it as soon as possible in order to help users in understanding that there is no only the Montecristi :eek:
Huertencilla my heart bleeds no longer see women and men in the fields with excellent straw hats and held out enormous work in the summer wheat harvest, whose straw of a special kind, specially planted was used to make the hats that Spain and Italy and France will save insolation. Times are changing.....
 
Messages
17,524
Location
Maryland
It appears the straw braid Ottmar Riech used came from Japan and China due to quality and price. Ottmar Reich switched to Asian straw sources in the late 19th century. They also came up with a novel bleaching process in the 1930s (Made in Japan, Bleached in Germany) that proved to be profitable. Looking forward to your Italian straw hat making documentation!
 

yttclothing

One of the Regulars
Messages
248
Location
United Kingdom
Ok finally managed to secure some more deliveries alas everything came in 55 -57 that being said some very nice hats

Rockel, stitched liner late 50's? I wish this was my size it's superb!

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Mossant, yes French but this was made for the German market. I'm thinking 60's with its glued liner

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Made by Walker, interesting to see this style of ribbon don't see it much in European hats, also the liner is not the normal material its a thicker heavier textile.

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Vintage Peek & Cloppenburg (The Department Store) Karat Quality

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Daniele Tanto

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,254
Location
Verona - Italia
Here the Italian straw hat description and history with a video (italian language)

Description of the Firenze hat
It is a straw hat characterized by 40 revolutions of the braids sewn, each consisting of 13 wires. Originally, the straw used came mainly from wheat Triticum aestivum gentle red, then, since the eighteenth century, from the wheat Triticum vulgare Host (in variety Semone and Marzuolo [1]), prized for its fineness and brightness color. The forms that the hat may have are numerous and follow the latest fashion trends, such as the "fioretto" (big and round with its wide edge) or "capote" (truncated cone).
history
The trade of straw stood since 1341 and producers of hats belonging to a profession have been present since 1574. The statutes of the Customs of Florence of 19 July 1577 and published March 4, 1579 , straw hats appear in the list of products subject to tax at an old customs . In 1718 , in the lands between Signa and Lastra a Signa , Domenico Michelucci was able to select a type of wheat called " marzuolo " , intended solely interweaving and non- food consumption .

Thanks to this new species , in the second half of the eighteenth century, the straw becomes a real local industry and employs most of the population Signa and those of the Arno Valley, dell'Ombrone Bisenzio and Pesa , whose production is primarily intended for foreign customers . From the valleys of production, export of straw hats and pigtails was through the Channel Navicelli , where the boatmen transporting the goods to the port of Livorno (Leghorn in English)

During the Napoleonic period , the foreign trade is almost zero . Since 1810 the export filming, especially to Germany and France : the business is thriving and also the Leipzig trade fair (at the time of the great trading platform Tuscan hat ) fails to meet the demand of international importers .

Between the end of the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth , Tuscan agriculture is experiencing a rebirth thanks to the collaboration between the Government of the Grand Duchy and the Academy of Georgofili : following the advice of this institution, the monarchs Ferdinand III and Leopold II before then renew the land registry , improve the customs system , promote the teaching of agriculture, creating the railway line ( with a station at Signa) Florence -Livorno said Leopolda ...

During the '20s the 800, after numerous attempts to imitate the product, a debate , which appeared in the periodical The Anthology , rages among academics Georgofili on the possibility of exporting the raw material (straw Tuscany) sought by many countries Europe.

Towards 1827 , using Tuscan straw , the British , followed by other countries (France , Switzerland, Germany and the U.S.) get a similar product ( with braids 11 threads sewn in a different way ) more competitive . This competition , coupled with the abandonment of the territory by skilled workers settled abroad with the secrets of the trade, precipitating Tuscany in a severe economic and financial crisis until 1840 , when international markets are regained through braid that fancy and elegant models especially like the "capote".

According to the Dictionnaire de l'industrie manufacturière , et agricultural trade [10] 1835 "I'm always the voluptuous valleys of the Arno which alone possess , along with those of the surroundings of Pistoia and Florence, the privilege of providing worldwide these lightweight hats to protect from the scorching rays of the sun the color of all women . "

During the World's Fair , which takes place in London in 1851 , manufacturers Nannucci (Florence) and Vyse and Sons (Prato) are awarded a " Prix" . And yet , at the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1855 , in the category " Manufacture of objects of fashion and fantasy ," the working men and women producers of braids for hats are rewarded with a medal of honor given by the Emperor Napoleon III and the practical Guide and full exposure is written: " with regard to the industry of straw, Tuscany must be classified at the top . exposure of the manufacturers of this country is the most remarkable : it shows a collection of plaited straw, from the most ordinary to the most purposes . the collection of hats is very beautiful , and the number is shown in the upper finesse to everything that has been done up to now . "

It should be noted that , according to some publications nineteenth century , hats manufactured Brozzi are considered the most popular .

In the second half of the nineteenth century , in addition to the production of numerous imitations of European origin , since 1885 the market penetration of products, among others , Chinese, similar to the braid Florentine , Tuscan causes the collapse of the market ( the salary of trecciaiole and seamstresses is reduced to fifty cents pound per day , whereas before oscillated between two and eight pounds per day in the years '10 800 ) . Dissatisfied with their salary, trecciaiole ( and fiascaie ) decide to rebel and strike May 18, 1896 ( one of the first strikes in the history of contemporary Italy ) : the strikers perform spectacular actions , such as locking the tram line Firenze- Fiesole charged with braids. After this period of depression is followed by a shot up and over the First World War.

Until the years 1924-25 , the territory of the town of Signa manufacture of hats still occupies approximately 5000 inhabitants. Then, towards the end of the first half of the twentieth century , due to the Chinese production of straw braids that offered at most competitive prices , manufacturers of hats begin gradually to abandon the profession to devote himself to the textile , footwear and leather goods.

Here the page with the video http://www.museopaglia.it/sezioni/ilcappello.php/

The processing of straw in Montappone (Marche) and nearby
The wheat sown in November was reaped with the sickle at the end of June, just before the perfect ripeness to achieve a natural whitening .

The sheaves on the threshing worn , with the wagon , were leaning against a wooden ladder placed horizontally .

Men, women and children marched handpieces ears of putting them all at the same height , a man they picked up in a handful bigger and with a scythe cut off the ears of corn . The nodes of the culms placed one by one at the same height , with the scissors of pruning , were cut away above and below and in popping the last one leaf sheaths .

The straws were graded according to size in order to have a homogeneous braid .

This operation was made manually by evaluating eye but could perfect only with the use of the machine " sifting " .

The straws were tied in bunches matched that fanned let themselves vertically in the yard , exposed to the sun and the dews for a natural whitening . If the operator is not perfect resorted thought the whitening power of sulfur placed in wooden boxes already full of bats straws for an entire night .

The straws were washed before being woven , so you do not spezzassero during processing .

The braids most common were those of four strands of straw, of seven and thirteen . Once implemented, the braid was cleaned up by the spikes of remittances with a knife or scissors . To make the braid more malleable to sewing (especially in the machine) is passed through two rollers of wood or iron ( printing frame ) .

The braid was sold in hanks ( patches ) obtained dall'avvolgimento it on a measuring instrument called a " small step " .

The traditional hat called " harvest " was hand-sewn with a thick needle and yarn ; hem hem against taking a mesh inside and one outside .

Thanks to the skill of the stapler points of the yarn were invisible disappearing through the cracks of the braid. In more recent times the stitching was made with a sewing machine pedal , then subsequently driven.

It gave the correct shape and polish , putting the hat on a wooden form and smoothing , pressing with a wooden mallet hard ; In addition it was also used a flat iron heated on the grill .

Subsequently this phase has evolved with the use of a series of presses of wood and iron .

The hatter walking Montappone carrying hats and exposed on a pole : a " pole " of willow making balance on a spur that was driven into the ground in times of sale or break.

Da Vincenzo Vitali Brancadoro , year 1860
in " HISTORICAL AND STATISTICS MONTAPPONE IN THE PROVINCE OF FERMO"

The wheat that is destined to the production of straw is no different from what you need at the bakery , but we choose those produced from Triticum aestivum ( bearded varieties of the genus ) , commonly known as wheat and marzuolo calvigia ; and calvigiotto and mazzocchetta for the most ordinary . In the twentieth century was hanging over the calvigia carusella , frasineto , jervicella and Torrenuova (the latter varieties of wheat are not too keen : did not bend to the ground ).

Hope this is usefull and if it is not in the right place fell free to move it to another thread
 
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