Congrats on the gamble, Stefan. Great it fits you. Sometimes you just have to go for it.
With your knowledge and experience I'm sure you win more often than not. Luckily, for your fellow Loungers, you're losses are often our gains, so win-win for you, too
With your knowledge and experience I'm sure you win more often than not. Luckily, for your fellow Loungers, you're losses are often our gains, so win-win for you, too
Here's an interesting one (I think). Saw this hat on an auction site (note that the pic was less than half this size; I've upscaled it here). The description was "Hat from London. One size."
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Wrote to the seller if she could take a look under the sweatband to see what size it actually was. No reply. Made an offer. No reply. Even though it was certainly a velour hat I decided to skip it. Fast forward a few months and while I was browsing the site again I remembered this hat and searched for it. Sure enough it was still there. The price was not an obstacle and I had been lucky with the gamble hats lately, so I decided to go for it.
A few days later a huge box shows up with a hat inside, no other packing material, not even a plastic bag. O well, the hat was ok it seemed. Out came this one.
Tonak Jota velour in a size 57 or 58 (label says 5-58), but fits me remarkably well. Great caramel colour with the raw edge brim at 6,5 cm and the crown at 10,5cm at the center dent. The velour felt had some flat spots from storage, but some steaming and brushing took care of that. Wonderful hand to the felt and very soft.
Not from London and not one size, but boy am I glad I decided to take the gamble.
The label unfortunately doesn't state the date of manufacture (under "Tyden") as they usually do. I've only seen Jota quality hats from Hückel, so likely this was made shortly after the war just after Hückel was nationalised and made into Tonak and they still used the old Hückel quality names. Only flaw is that the liner is missing. The sweatband is worthy of note as it is 5,5cm wide! One of the widest I've seen.
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