Post New Hats Here!

[Iyor]

Great hat John.

 

[jwalls]

Great hat John.

Thank you, my friend!!

 

[RobStC]

Wellington. The colors floor me.

Nice! Looks very similar, colours and overall, to my Mallory Eight Fifty, and it needed a new sweat band too! Optimo did a nice job for me, so worth an enquiry.....

Enjoy,
RobStC

 

[Rodkins]

Nice wins there Mike!

Is the red tag still inside the possible Playboy? The ribbon is perhaps a replacement also.

Here is the red tag, Alan.

 

[alanfgag]

Good to see, thanks Mike... around 1940 or later, perhaps.

 

[Rodkins]

Good to see, thanks Mike... around 1940 or later, perhaps.

Thanks for your excellent input, Alan. I have been wearing this one quite a bit since it came in. I think it will be a sort of very cool "beater" for me and I will wear it often with jeans. This will probably be a hat that I wear out - until it's dead.

 

[m0nk]

Got a Dobbs off eBay; has a 2" over welt brim and is a nice, charcoal grey. The brim is a little shorter than I'm used to but I like having something a little stingy'er around:

 

[alanfgag]

Borsalino Natalsca - Sfinge

I learned a few things today. A hat arrived that I had been watching for a long time and bought on its third go around from ebay. In discussing price with the seller, a few odd contradictions came up that were answered on opening the package. She was selling the hat for her uncle, who responded directly to my queries with this email:

Hi Alan,

I bought this hat in Santa Margarita, Italy about Feb.1952. I was told to keep the hat in the box until I was ready to wear
it. It's beautiful hat and I am sure you will be proud to wear it.

Uncle George


He never did wear it and it remained in the box for 60 years. The auction photos showed a beautiful creamy tan, but the box clearly said Palladio, which in the Borso palette as I've seen it, is a bright, cool light gray - the color of my recently posted Pocket Hat. Color balance of light hats is a big unknown in auction photos. You pays your money and takes your chances.

Although Uncle George received his hat in the signature triangular box - it's not the box intended for this hat.

Under the sweatband, the label shows the style and color.

I know Sfinge from my in-laws, a sticky, cream puffy dessert served by Italian Americans on special occasions. I didn't know the desert definition of Sfinge, though:

A very apt name for this light sand toned puzzler. Heck, they could have called it silverbelly. And if Uncle George's memory serves him correctly, the newer style label without Borsalino logo might help to refine dating. Perhaps the change in labels that occurred during the O.P.S. years (some show the older label, some the newer) can be further refined to pre-1952 and 1952+?

So here is the hat, in its 60 year rumpled glory: 2 5/8" brim, showing an ultra thin 2mm binding on the top, 5mm underneath. 1 7/8" ribbon 5 1/2" open crown.

ps: I'll put some additional photos on the Brotherhood once I have a chance to steam and shape it.
pps: Thanks to CarouselVic for his huge collection of samples and dating expertise.

 

[Aureliano]

It looks great, Alan. Uncle George and Melody sure took good care of it. Very, very nice.

 

[bowlerman]

beautiful!

 

[alanfgag]

Thank you Ale and Jeff.

Another factor in the puzzler that I forgot to add to the original post is the U.S. market Borsalino imprint. Very odd, if the owner's story is true and accurate. Some sort of Borsalino factory store selling overruns? There is no store imprint or other marking on the front or back of the sweatband. Hmmmm.?

 

[mayserwegener]

>> U.S. market Borsalino imprint.

Do you mean the use of a U.S. size instead of French Point?

Assuming the story is accurate, a U.S. market hat was sold in Italy.

By the way fantastic Borso!

 

[randooch]

Lordy, lordy, Alan. Another gem for the treasure chest! Have you come up with an artsy idea for all those triangular boxes, as I doubt they'll house hats any more?

MOnk, I bet you could wear that Dobbs open-crowned to good effect.

 

[alanfgag]

>> U.S. market Borsalino imprint.

Do you mean the use of a U.S. size instead of French Point?

Assuming the story is accurate, a U.S. market hat was sold in Italy.

By the way fantastic Borso!

Thanks! Both the U.S. size tag and the "made in Italy by" sweatband imprint are typical of Borsalinos sold in the U.S. market. The town he mentions - Santa Margherita Ligure is on the coast not far from Alessandria... a tourist destination in the post war years. Maybe there was a Borsalino factory outlet store? [huh]

 

[rlk]

Liner and sweatband are both US importer's versions. Most "owner family" stories are completely wrong or incorrectly remembered. The stamp is also one generally seen on slightly later hats.

 

[alanfgag]

Liner and sweatband are both US importer's versions. Most "owner family" stories are completely wrong or incorrectly remembered. The stamp is also one generally seen on slightly later hats.

Certainly the story could be complete romance or half remembered by Uncle George. Wrong year, right place?

Were these rolled hats in boxes sold through U.S. stores?

Could be an American hat rolled in a European box... with the same model numbers, but different color and size?

 

[rlk]

Perhaps they exported some hats in those boxes as a more efficient storage and shipment container. Looks like the factory production label(with different colors). Of course we also don't know if those numbers applied to just one hat. The boxes I have seen previously did not have that label affixed.

 

[mayserwegener]

Sorry! Actually the box paper label has UK (or is this a Borsalino conversion to US size?) and Point size. Does the hat measure US 7 1/8?

 

[rlk]

Box is marked 6-1/2/7-3/8 so size as well as colors do not match.

 

[mayserwegener]

The paper label appears to have Point to UK size conversion. For example Point 6 = 7 1/4.

Sorry this doesn't have anything to do with with the situation at hand but just something I noticed.