Pre 1940s Stetson Westerns

[Dinerman]

Post them here.

I'll start out with this one, which is currently in Maryland, though I haven't seen it in person yet.

Wide brim with curl. Tall crown with a deep crease.

Lighter colored felt with intentionally frayed bow and twisted knot.

No. 1 Quality. Textured sweatband.

 

[Dinerman]

Inside of the hat. Green liner. Textured sweatband. Appears it might have had a stampede string at some point.

Clear Nutria John B. Stetson Company Philadelphia

Fur Felt Hat Made in the USA

John S. Hartman & Son
Hatters
87 New Bond Street
Established 1850

Deep, slanted telescope crease. It seems from the hats I've seen and the dirt lines on hats I've seen recreased on ebay that this deep telescope crease was popular on this style of high crowned wide brimmed cowboy hat. The tall exaggerated gus crease /tom mix crease seems to be something more of a caricature of movie hats than most people actually did. But try telling that to a cowboy action shooter.

High Crowned hat

 

[Dinerman]

Low crown with evidence of previous creases. When I got it it was creased with a modern cattleman's crease, but that doesn't really work or provide any space for a head on a hat with a crown this low. So I steamed it open. From the way it's stained and dented, I don't believe that the cattleman's was what it was worn as for most of it's life. Shallow front pinches look to be more likely. Also note colors and bow-work, which are consistent with other No.1 quality hats already in this thread.

Gold foil 1930s size tag. These seem to have been phased out around 1940. The fonts are different from the manila tags used later, as are the the materials, though the shape is the same. Though later Canadian hats also used foil tags, they are of a different kind. NRA tag dates this hat to between 1933 and 1935.

Bow-work. Intentionally frayed trailing edge. Twisted bow.

 

[Dinerman]

very similar to this hat.

 

[Dinerman]

Stetson Standard Quality.
A very thin, lightweight yet stiff felt.

Super deep, crisp blind embossed Stetson logo.

Liner tip sticker with early logo.

Blue sweatband bow. This one also has a gold foil size tag, though it fell off the hat and safely put away.

 

[Dinerman]

Definitely a wild color on this one. The color in the first picture is accurate. The felt is also different from the other No. 1 quality hats. Thinner, more of a dress weight.

Inside of hat showing red piped liner.

 

[Dinerman]

From Jimmy the Lid

When I opened the box and took out this hat, I thought there must have been some mistake. It is absolutely jet black and looks as if it was made earlier this month and shipped to me by a custom hatter. No kidding, it looks like an absolutely brand new hat. So much so, in fact, that I thought that someone had simply taken an old sweat and sewn it into a new hat. Honestly, I was bummed -- until I discovered the Stetson tags under the sweat, one of which has a serial number that matches the serial number stamped on the back of the sweat!

The felt, as previously mentioned, is jet black. It is hard to convey this in photographs, but the first photo below, taken with flash, gives a very good sense of how this hat looks in daylight, as well. There is a very small hole in the curl at the very front of the hat -- but, other than that, the felt is in mint condition. It is amazingly malleable -- just like clay in terms of taking any shape that is squeezed into it. It is also extremely dense and smooth, but still fairly lightweight. Given what must be this hat's age, I'm wondering whether this felt was made using mercury, and whether the density and smoothness is a result of this process.

The curled brim on this one is 3". Open crown height is 5 1/2". The sweat is actually in amazing condition -- still extremely supple. It is taped at the back seam.

I would love to hear from those who might have an idea as to dating this one. My reading in the Snyder Stetson book suggests a time frame anywhere from 1900 through the 1920's, but I don't have enough info to really pin this down.

In any event, I thought it would be worth documenting this one fairly thoroughly...

Cheers,
JtL

 

[Dinerman]

From Garrett

Some of the best felt I've touched.

 

[Dinerman]

From Douglas

This is buy far my favorite hat.The shape,style and the color for me can not be bested. I would give great hats away for another one like this in my size. I don't even wear it that much any more in fear of damage. I got this at a flea market all crumpled up. I wish I new what type it is. I've heard it called the "GIANT" but I can't be sure. Has anyone seen this type?

 

[Dinerman]

From Feltfan

In that first picture you can see the horsehair band and the
hole in the front of the crown where I removed (possibly temporarily)
a pin that was in the hat.

About that horsehair band... it sits on top of a tooled leather
band with what appears to be a silver buckle:

Here's the other side:

Here is a side view:

In those last two pictures, you can see the box in arrived in.
Appears to be the original box?

Top view:

Back view:

Store stamp on the sweat band:

Repeated on the front of the sweat:

And here's where it gets really interesting:

Yep, "clear nutria". The logo should look familiar.
I have searched the site for information on clear nutria, but haven't
come up with much. In one post Art says he read it was the most
expensive felt Stetson ever sold. Jamespowers says he has one
(no big surprise there!) and posts some "before" pictures here:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?t=2082&page=2

 

[Dinerman]

From Jamespowers

Here is my latest. It doesn't look like much but I have a few ideas for it that will make it look like a very cool hat. That and it just happens to be quite old and a Clear Nutria John B. Stetson. :clap
Here we go:

 

[Dinerman]

From PabloElFlamenco

Sorry if some of the "macro" pictures are not ideal, also the gilt lettring of the fuchsia liner does not photograph clearly... but gives a good idea of what this hat is all about.

 

[Garrett]

a BIG thankyou to Dinerman for this great thread - and to scott for suggesting it :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Dinerman]

From ScottF

Here's a recent pick-up. Felt's almost perfect, as is the leather in the sweatband, but the sweatbands' halfway unstitched. Third pic shows the bash it came with, which I'll leave as-is. The bottom left sweatband pic is stamped "No.1 Gold", which I found interesting - probably some of them said "No.1 Silver", etc.

[/QUOTE]

 

[ScottF]

Dinerman - Thanks - this is awesome!

What a great bunch of lids!

 

[Lefty]

Dinerman - Thanks - this is awesome!

What a great bunch of lids!

+1. Great thread!

 

[RobFedoraField]

oh crap!

you popped out that pork pie crease! you're a braver man than I

 

[Dinerman]

you popped out that pork pie crease! you're a braver man than I

Oh it's back in, I just wanted to see just how high that crown was. Turns out mighty high. It's a deeeeeep porkpie.

 

[HarpPlayerGene]

Great work, Dinerman. Thank you for assembling this thread.

Here's one of mine. Very similar to Dinerman's version but without edge binding. Mine is dress weight felt too. Had to replace the sweat band. Love this hat.

 

[bolthead]

Well said.....

a BIG thankyou to Dinerman for this great thread - and to scott for suggesting it :eusa_clap :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

.....and very well done, great thread. This is what this forum is all about. :eusa_clap