The BORSALINO BROTHERHOOD

[Daniele Tanto]

Hello everyone! Hope you all are good.

Today I am posting here one of the latest finds which I consider one of the most valuable finds of this last period.
I want to show one of two Borsalino Antica Casa that came together in my hands: the one I am going to show is the black one, the other (the brown one) will come as a gift for next Christmas (photos will come after Christmas).
Both hats are in almost PERFECT condition, having been preserved very well for decades. They are both size 6 French punti (59cm, so very "wearable" for my size 59 also) and have also a very interesting story to tell.
They have been bought from a man from Genova, the grandfather of the old lady that sold them, that was born in 1880 and of which I have the luck to have a photo sent by the owner (I will ask the lady if she gives me permission to show it). He was a wood artist and very talented and capable furniture craftsman; towards his 20 years of age he got married with a beautiful lady that gave him 3 or 4 children; because of that and also because of all the customers that did not pay his work in time, he had to change his job and become a Public Railways employee, assuring him to have the possibility to economically maintain his family.

Yes, this Borsalino is beautiful and probably comes direct from after the First World War, but it is also a real enigma.
Lining from a shop in Treviso and sweatband from a shop in Hamburg, both with the Borsalino brand crossed out with an X as if to remove the brand and the paternity of the product. This makes me think of a hat that for some reason Borsalino not only did not want to sign, they could not have put it on the market, but it highlighted its disavowal.
The paper label written entirely by hand may be an indication because stamps with the name of the hat were already used on the production labels and this one does not have it, but on other occasions we have already seen handwriting in older years close to us to speed up the introduction of hats onto the market.
X crossed out by the brands remains an element of curiosity and rarity, but it certainly does not make us participants in the history of this hat which is troubled, so much so as to be an unknown child.

 

[harrytemp]

Hello everyone! Hope you all are good.

Today I am posting here one of the latest finds which I consider one of the most valuable finds of this last period.
I want to show one of two Borsalino Antica Casa that came together in my hands: the one I am going to show is the black one, the other (the brown one) will come as a gift for next Christmas (photos will come after Christmas).
Both hats are in almost PERFECT condition, having been preserved very well for decades. They are both size 6 French punti (59cm, so very "wearable" for my size 59 also) and have also a very interesting story to tell.
They have been bought from a man from Genova, the grandfather of the old lady that sold them, that was born in 1880 and of which I have the luck to have a photo sent by the owner (I will ask the lady if she gives me permission to show it). He was a wood artist and very talented and capable furniture craftsman; towards his 20 years of age he got married with a beautiful lady that gave him 3 or 4 children; because of that and also because of all the customers that did not pay his work in time, he had to change his job and become a Public Railways employee, assuring him to have the possibility to economically maintain his family.
He died in 1943 with 63 years of age before the birth of the owner that told me the story.
As for the hat I am posting, I have more than one clue that make me suspect about the fact that these Borsalinos could have made and bought before 1920 (I hope you will help me understand if I am right or not): The general shape of the hat, the type of ribbon, the liner and the type of separate cell label type that also shows a very low serial number on both hats, which interestingly have been written by the same person for both hats' cells.
Another interesting fact is that these 2 hats show two big golden "X" each, one on the liner and one on the sweatband, engraved as if the Borsalino House had made them. The liner and the sweatband are original but aren't coming from the same hat shop. I really don't know what it could mean because it is the first time I see such a thing on a so old hat.
Very very proud and happy of this purchase (I will keep them among my absolutely favorite hats: I feel like having found a real treasure), I am posting the first black one here for you with a great joy, hoping you will love them as I do!
Thanks a lot in advance and see you soon.

best,

Francesco

Amazing find and story. Better you than me as the caretaker of this nice hat. I am just some guy in California and have a few vintage hats.

I would probably be watering my yard with it.

 

[T Jones]

This fine gray Borsalino thin ribbon Alessandria recently came to me by way of a generous fellow Lounger. I stripped it and blocked it down two sizes to a 7 1/4 to fit me. I've been wanting one of these Alessandria thin ribbons for a long while, and in a gray color! This is going to be a project that I'll have to work on a little bit at a time while I'm doing hats for a few other good folks here. I took plenty of pictures so I can put all the original stuff back on it the way it was, thin ribbon and all. The original crown height was 6 inches with a 2 1/2 brim. The new crown height is 5 3/4 with a now 2 5/8 wide brim, and is blocked on my straight sided RA block. There's a couple of moth bites but they're small so I'm not really too concerned over those. The one thing I noticed about Borsalinos is that they're real clever with their ribbon work. The ribbon work on this is all one piece

 

[steur]

This fine gray Borsalino thin ribbon Alessandria recently came to me by way of a generous fellow Lounger. I stripped it and blocked it down two sizes to a 7 1/4 to fit me. I've been wanting one of these Alessandria thin ribbons for a long while, and in a gray color! This is going to be a project that I'll have to work on a little bit at a time while I'm doing hats for a few other good folks here. I took plenty of pictures so I can put all the original stuff back on it the way it was, thin ribbon and all. The original crown height was 6 inches with a 2 1/2 brim. The new crown height is 5 3/4 with a now 2 5/8 wide brim, and is blocked on my straight sided RA block. There's a couple of moth bites but they're small so I'm not really too concerned over those. The one thing I noticed about Borsalinos is that they're real clever with their ribbon work. The ribbon work on this is all one piece

I'm sure you'll do them proud, Terry.

 

[harrytemp]

This fine gray Borsalino thin ribbon Alessandria recently came to me by way of a generous fellow Lounger. I stripped it and blocked it down two sizes to a 7 1/4 to fit me. I've been wanting one of these Alessandria thin ribbons for a long while, and in a gray color! This is going to be a project that I'll have to work on a little bit at a time while I'm doing hats for a few other good folks here. I took plenty of pictures so I can put all the original stuff back on it the way it was, thin ribbon and all. The original crown height was 6 inches with a 2 1/2 brim. The new crown height is 5 3/4 with a now 2 5/8 wide brim, and is blocked on my straight sided RA block. There's a couple of moth bites but they're small so I'm not really too concerned over those. The one thing I noticed about Borsalinos is that they're real clever with their ribbon work. The ribbon work on this is all one piece

Can you take get the taper off my hat? It is pointy and looks like I’m wearing a dunce hat.

 

[Mighty44]

This fine gray Borsalino thin ribbon Alessandria recently came to me by way of a generous fellow Lounger. I stripped it and blocked it down two sizes to a 7 1/4 to fit me. I've been wanting one of these Alessandria thin ribbons for a long while, and in a gray color! This is going to be a project that I'll have to work on a little bit at a time while I'm doing hats for a few other good folks here. I took plenty of pictures so I can put all the original stuff back on it the way it was, thin ribbon and all. The original crown height was 6 inches with a 2 1/2 brim. The new crown height is 5 3/4 with a now 2 5/8 wide brim, and is blocked on my straight sided RA block. There's a couple of moth bites but they're small so I'm not really too concerned over those. The one thing I noticed about Borsalinos is that they're real clever with their ribbon work. The ribbon work on this is all one piece

Looking good, Terry—congrats!

 

[steur]

Continued from the GB Borsalino fu Lazzaro thread: today I have something special and it's going to take up quite a few posts to get it all on here. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometime: I happened to stumble upon the Italian State Archive (Archivio centrale della stato) and with some advanced squirreling you can find the archives of The Ministero D'Agricoltura, Industria e Commercio. The ministry was responsible for the trademarks and they have their archive digitalized. So, I dug up the trademarks for Borsalino for the years 1882, 1894, 1901, 1903, 1908, 1910, 1913, 1923, 1925, 1928, 1931, 1935, 1936, 1942, 1943, 1946, 1947, 1948 and 1959. The way these are presented varies, but usually it consists of the image and on a separate page a description or notes. Since this determines which trademarks were introduced at what date, it will help us with dating hats. Unless there is something special to note, I'll just post the images.

1882 (with Giuseppe's own signature on the papers)
I'm not aware we've ever seen the one below.

1894

 

[steur]

1901 More of the familiar emblems appear.

Some appear to have later dates, but these are renewals (rinnovazione) of earlier trademarks, the dates of which can be found on the bottom of the pages.

 

[steur]

1903 "Gagliaudo" we've also never seen

1908 The familiar trademark with the "antica casa" added, necessary due to the founding of the "other Borsalino".

1910 First time we see the "Trionfo" designation.

1913 The first time the "nutria" emblem appears

 

[steur]

1923

1925

1928

 

[steur]

1931

1935 Don't know if we've seen a "Victor" but I have a "Tanaro".

1936

1942

 

[steur]

1943
The year in which most of the GB Borsalino fu Lazzaro were renewed under the Borsalino name.

 

[steur]

1943 (continued)

1946

1947

1948

1959

 

[T Jones]

Looking good, Terry—congrats!

Thank you David!

 

[T Jones]

Can you take get the taper off my hat? It is pointy and looks like I’m wearing a dunce hat.

If you have enough crown I can take the taper out. The one I posted had a six inch crown, plus it was two sizes larger than I wear. I had no problem with that one. I also did a few other Borsalinos where I took the taper out on a straight sided block. Again, they had plenty of crown to work with. Do you have a picture of your hat?

This Borsalino had a super tapered up crown but I was able to straighten it right up on a straight sided block. There was plenty of hat here to work with.

 

[T Jones]

I'm sure you'll do them proud, Terry.

Thank you, steur! I'll do my best on it! But first, I have a few other commitments to take of for some fellow Loungers.

 

[steur]

Borsalino in grey. No label underneath the sweatband at first glance and I didn't want to dig for it because the sweatband feels very stiff. Size 56 (but runs small) with the raw edge brim at 5,5cm and the crown at 9cm at the center dent. Not the greatest Borsalino I've ever found but there it is.

 

[steur]

Borsalino fedora in grey. Colour is called plumbeo, which is a colour we don't see too often. Size 56 with the brim at 5cm and the crown at 11cm at the center dent. Neat hat at 110 grams, but it too runs small, so not a keeper.

 

[ptjoe]

Merry Christmas
Couple of questions
Borsalino ever make hats with dimensional brims?
Saw one on ebay, 23/4 front and back 21/2 sides if I'm correct.
Do the trionfo giorgios come in different brim sizes?
Looking at trionfo giorgio V? Whatever that means.
Thanks looking forward to hearing from you.

 

[Francesco1992]

Hello everyone and thanks for your kind and as always very interesting answers that I had the big pleasure to read on my last post.
Exactly as promised, today I am going to show you the other Borsalino Antica Casa that came together with the black one I showed you some days ago. Same absolutely perfect conditions as the other. As I wrote in the last post, the original owner of these 2 hats died in 1943, some months before the seller was born. I think this is a really legendary hat.
This is the life companion of the mysterious same-sized (59cm) black Borsalino Antica Casa that appears to be born before 1920 (I would date it around 1915, please correct me if you have to): wonderful brown colour called VIRGINIA (from the inscription on the internal celled label), very high and full crown, darker brown ribbon; the light-coloured sweatband with the marking "QUALITA' SPECIALE" shows on his back a writing that indicates exactly the same serial number on the celled label (556) making me think that the sweatband is also original.
The wonderful and very elegant pink/champagne liner is made of a type of silk that I have NEVER seen before, which is kind of shiner and much thinner than the other liners' silk I have seen before. The same mysterious golden "X" on the liner as for the black one is present and in this case it is covering the "Qualità superiore" logo; the liner itself indicates that the hat was originally made for the american market (hat shop LOGAN PHILLIPS located in Jackson, Mississippi).
The internal celled label, completely handwritten (from the same person writing on the label of the black one) appears to be of the oldest type, it is short and narrow and the serial number is very low also in this case (556).
No doubt it is a real Borsalino Antica Casa, but the "golden X" mystery remains.
Another hat which is a pearl and that I am so proud to begin wearing!
I pick this occasion to give you all my best wishes for a merry Christmas and a happy new year 2024, that will make our hats become even older