If Sam Spade Had Worn Plush Borsalinos...

[Visigoth]

This is my finest hat, I think: according to James, Borsalinos in the $40.00 and up bracket were 100% beaver -- and it certainly feels that way (it's an Extra Superiore, but the felt is much nicer than the Extra Extra that I sold). All the trimmings: Cavanaugh edge; the ribbon has four pleats; and there's a wind trolley.

Problem is, I never managed to bash it in a fashion that made me happy: plush hats tend to look *big*, I find. And this one already has a six-inch crown height, unbashed. So, yesterday, I tried something novel: thought I'd imitate Bogie's Maltese Falcon look, with the very deep bash in the crown. I didn't do his weird modified C-crown -- instead I did a diamond; but it sits low enough that my head pushes the center up, and it looks similar to Bogie's when I'm wearing it. In fact, it's deeper than Sam Spade's -- more like Rick's in Casablanca; and the brim is more Casablanca -- but the profile is Maltese Falcon. So it's a Bogie hybrid. Thoughts about this shape?

Something tells me that Sam probably couldn't have afforded an Extra Superiore; and wouldn't have ordered it in plush, if he could. (The actual Borsalino designation is "Peluche", which means... yes, plush.) I like to think he would have appreciated the color, however: midnight blue, almost black -- the ribbon is black.

Can anyone here date this thing? The serial number suggests 1960; the crown height suggests thirties or forties. That black Eulan Bayer sizing tag is different from my early Borsalinos, which tend to have white cloth tags, or red and white cardboard. Dunno if that means anything, however.

(For reference, the Maltese Falcon bash is nicely documented at http://www.thegoldenera.net/hat_Bogart_Falcon.html and the Casablanca look is at http://www.thegoldenera.net/hat_Bogart_Casablanca.html)

 

[Visigoth]

Okay, this silence is ominous. What: you guys hate the hat? Too pimp? (In the early, pejorative sense?)

 

[jml90]

Okay, this silence is ominous. What: you guys hate the hat? Too pimp? (In the early, pejorative sense?)

In the great words of Willard Scott: What can I say? Back to you.
But it is a great hat though the brim is a touch too small for my large head

 

[Mulceber]

Great looking hat! personally I favor a wider brim, but I really like the bash on that. Very Bogart-like. -Mulceber

 

[Visigoth]

Thanks! Not actually fishing for compliments (well, I am -- but only truthful ones). Plush is not generally my thing, but the felt really is absurdly nice, and it's *much* warmer than any of my other hats -- useful for cold days.

 

[Mulceber]

Sorry, can't date this thing. I'm nowhere near being an expert. My only guess is mid-50's because I saw Marty McFly wear one like that in Back to the Future II. -Mulceber

 

[MattC]

Look sweetheart

Its a nice hat. That's what matters.

 

[Cruiser]

I think it is an outstanding hat. I would like it, even though the narrower brim wouldn't occur to me if the hat and color weren't so great. Pix of it on you?

 

[ortega76]

I. LOVE. That. Hat.

Outstanding bash. Gives it a great look.

 

[Visigoth]

Gracias. The brim is 2", which on me looks medium, not stingy. Same proportions, judging from the photos, as Rick's hat in Casablanca.

I have a thing about posting pics of myself on the Web (not that I think you nice people are gonna sell them to a porn site or anything); but maybe I'll get over it...

I'm dying to figure out *when* this hat was made. The two-inch brim with six-inch crown is similar to a 1930 hat I have. Another oddity about this one: if you look at the sweatband -- it's not reeded, and it has a sort of waxy paper backing, which protrudes past the edge. And the fact that it's *grey* speaks of an earlier date, no?

Anyone have a liner that matches this one?

 

[Mulceber]

Gracias. The brim is 2", which on me looks medium, not stingy. Same proportions, judging from the photos, as Rick's hat in Casablanca.

as much as I like the hat, I have to disagree, The crown's about the same, but I think Rick's brim was about 1/2" wider than that one.

I have a thing about posting pics of myself on the Web

Not weird at all. Just a good saftey precaution. There are a lot of strange people out there. -Mulceber

 

[Visigoth]

Okay, in a semi-but-not-really-scientific Photoshop experiment, I scaled the pics of my hat and Rick's so that the baseline is the same (width from one side of the ribbon to the other). Looks to me as if his brim, if it's at all wider, isn't more than a 1/4" or so.

(By the way -- I can't seem to upload images here, even though I technically have privileges...)

 

[Mulceber]

hmm. Maybe not as much wider as I thought, but definitely a good 1/4". I really like the crown, though. -Mulceber

 

[feltfan]

I think it's silly to judge the quality or components of a
Borsalino solely on price. A 1940s Borsalino for $40 is a different
hat than a 1970s Borsalino for $40.

A quick search of the site comes up with this:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=3314&page=4

So the claim is that "eulan bayer" tag would put it from the 50s to the 70s.
I would guess the latter end of that, given the appearance of the tag
and the narrow brim.

 

[Visigoth]

The Eulan Bayer process goes back much earlier, I'm pretty sure: I have thirties Borsalinos with Eulan Bayer tags (although they're round cardboard tags, separate from the size tag). Are you saying that the black cloth tag nails it to that era?

And the pricing thing isn't actually that silly, if you're talking about hats from the thirties, forties and fifties: after all, they *named* hats after the price, and -- as far as I can tell -- a Dobbs Twenty, for instance, didn't gradually become worse over the years. If this hat was 40 dollars in 1960, then yes: that makes it a pretty high-end Borsalino. (And this is an argument for it being an earlier hat, come to think of it: I suspect an Extra Superiore, in the late seventies, would have been much more expensive.)

 

[Visigoth]

(The competing info on this site with regard to the dating of Borsalinos is in fact a problem...)

The six-inch crown height, to me, is what seems unusual for a late hat. I think we need Besdor to weigh in, with his worldclass collection of late Borsos...