Levi's Type I jacket - 1930s original?

[Baron Kurtz]

I just bought this jacket, and don't quite know what it is. It's a type I jacket, obviously, but from when? I know it's not from the current crop of LVC reproductions as the previous owner got it in 1987 from someone who'd had it a while. Was there an earlier reproduction made, maybe in the 70s? It is made of selvedge denim - no coloured line in the selvedge. Hopefully someone who knows more about vintage levis can let me know when it's from, and why they think so. There are no labels, and no hint that there were ever labels, other than the stitching that remains from the neck area leather tab (there are some flecks of leather under the thread of the remaining stitching.

Anyway, it's a bit beat up, sadly. Arms and collar and back belt gone. The rest of it is in nice shape. It seems a bit too nice shape to be a 1930s original, if you know what I mean.

Early style nickel buttons

All the buttons have this strange "v" mark on the back.

You can't see it but there is the smallest scrap of a red tab on the right side of the pocket.

Copper rivets.

bk

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Info from www.vintagemotorcyclejackets.com

http://www.vintagemotorcyclejackets.com/506XX-47.htm

The only other jacket this could be (other than a pre-war Type I) is the 1947 Type I which introduced a pocket flap to the flapless pre-'47 Type I pocket. Like the 1947 Type I, the inside of my jacket's pocket flap is lined with shirt weight denim and the pocket corners are reinforced with rivets.

However, it has different, doughnut-style buttons. Basically the 1947 Type I is just a pre-war Type I jacket with different buttons.

In more news, I talked to a very knowledgable vintage dealer this morning who was convinced that my jacket was a pre-war Type I, rather than a postwar Type I.

bk