ScottF
Call Me a Cab
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besdor said:Borsalino hats have been made under license in other countries in the past. In the USa it was Bollman . In Columbia SA it was Colfieltros . Its realy not that hard to tell the difference between the origianl and the other versions. The quality is the first way to see the difference. USA made versions were stiffer and could not say "made in Italy" . The South American versions were trimmed terribly and also could not sat made in Italy. Colfieltros is out of business since 2007 and Bollman lost the license years ago .
As for older hats such as the Fu Lazzaro versions, I know that Borsalino bought out other companies over the years such as Vanzina which was in Pavia Italy .There were also two seperate distributors here in the USA back in the 1920's and they may have had slightly different versions made for each other. I have quite a few Fu Lazzaro Borsalino hats that were definately made by the origial Borsalino company back in the late 1950's . They had different labels for different quility levels.
Many of the Borsalino hats that are in the Museum in Alessandria do not have linings so it is difficult to tell what the quality levels were years ago . If anyone wanted to research what was sold here years ago , you need to finds copies of a magazine called " The American Hatter" It was a trade publication that existed from 1890 until 1937 . It was ads from all of the companies that were wround then and is very useful for dating hats .
Steven
www.bencrafthats.com
Thanks, Steven - useful and very interesting information. I did see a 'made in U.S.A.' Borsalino on ebay, labeled in the sweat as such.
All other Borsalinos I've held have been of high quality, even two that did not say 'Made in Italy', so I suppose I can assume they were indeed made in Italy.
As far as the fu Lazarro ones, that's very interesting info that they were made in the late '50s by Borsalino. I have one arriving any day now that might fit your description.
Thanks!