The Dobbs Diner...

[Brad Bowers]

Oh wow, I can only imagine what it must have looked like brand new! Nice find!

Brad

 

[alanfgag]

1940's Dobbs Cross Country Flanul Felt

An interesting little hat - ultra-lightweight at 2.5 ounces, made from a thin felt blended from 80% fur/ 20% wool. The character of the hat is very similar to my early unlined Stetson Playboy from the same general period - but thinner, lighter, with a wider ribbon and brim.

The brim was bent up in the back from storage... steaming wouldn't bring the flanging back to life, but a little work with a steam iron did the trick.

The light felt must be moth paradise. The hat is ventilated by a small number of holes that go all the way through the felt. Maybe I will do a little work to minimize, or maybe not... I chose a low diamond creased crown to locate the holes where they will be least evident when wearing.

The brim is 2 5/8" with a very subtle felted edge... similar to my early 40's Imperial Stetson.

Sweatband is very soft and supple, unreeded. The hat shows no signs of having been worn, except by moths.

 

[Brad Bowers]

Thanks for posting the photos, Alan. Beautiful hat, even with the holes. My big question is, can you tell, at all, that there is wool in the felt?

Brad

 

[delectans]

Very nice, Alan! One of Dobbs' iconic models, here beautifully represented. Love that felted edge and imposing crown!

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I see a price tag, partially, the number 5, is that $5.00 original price tag? That is one very sharp looking hat. Here is my Dobbs 15X Open Road clone, an eBay victory. The original thin hat band was tattered and frayed and almost at the point of falling off, so I got the urge to make a new hat band, found some not too bad Grosgrain, and went the the pain and tears of making the band and bow application. This hat was shipped to me in a box far too small, I had to do some work getting the brim looking spiffy again, and found what steaming a hat can do. It is now my second favorite hat.

 

[alanfgag]

Thanks Al and Brad...

On the felt, it does not really show any evidence of the wool content to the touch. It molds quite nicely and holds a crease well. The felt is unusually thin... I would say only my Borsalino featherweight is close and that is a much narrower brim. At first I wasn't sure I could get the brim to hold a crisp shape, but the ironing helped a lot.

LMH2, I'm not sure about the price. It is an old sticker, but would the store paste a price label to the sweatband, or was it a later sale? I wonder about the 20 on the content label? Brad might know the price of the Cross Country at that time.

Here's what it looks like on:

 

[LoveMyHats2]

Well, that price tag has a sort of "vintage" look to it, but hard to say. What really does amaze me about the prices of hats that our Great Grandpa's and Father's would have worn was not all that much. But then I also think about the factor that some folks worked all month for less than a few hundred bucks, cars sold in the 1920's and 1930's for what we now would pay for a used rider mower!

The more I read on FL and see what everyone has, the more I am learning about all types of hats, and their history.

 

[alanfgag]

Looking back at a 1939 ad, the Cross Country was listed at $5.00.

 

[Blackthorn]

I just got a vintage Dobbs from Ordinary Guy. It's my new favorite hat, a real dark chocolate beauty with a wind trolley, in excellent shape. I'm glad it wasn't his size:

 

[delectans]

Looks like a real beauty! Nice Guild Edge as well. Is it a Twenty?

 

[Blackthorn]

Looks like a real beauty! Nice Guild Edge as well. Is it a Twenty?

Yes it is, Delectans. Any idea when they made this model?

 

[delectans]

As you are no doubt aware, the Twenty was a price designation, and not a specific model. From what I have seen, it seems that the Dobbs Twenty was produced from sometime in the '40s through at least the early '60s.

Post a few interior shots when you can, and we should be able to refine the date estimate.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I see a price tag, partially, the number 5, is that $5.00 original price tag? That is one very sharp looking hat. Here is my Dobbs 15X Open Road clone, an eBay victory. The original thin hat band was tattered and frayed and almost at the point of falling off, so I got the urge to make a new hat band, found some not too bad Grosgrain, and went the the pain and tears of making the band and bow application. This hat was shipped to me in a box far too small, I had to do some work getting the brim looking spiffy again, and found what steaming a hat can do. It is now my second favorite hat.

I found a small strip of newspaper that was in the sweatband of this hat, it is dated Thursday, March 14th, 1957. I am going to attempt taking a picture with my cell phone and add it to this post if it is readable. For some reason my digital camera is on the blink....

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I found a small strip of newspaper that was in the sweatband of this hat, it is dated Thursday, March 14th, 1957. I am going to attempt taking a picture with my cell phone and add it to this post if it is readable. For some reason my digital camera is on the blink....

Here is one side of the little gem of a paper that was in my Dobbs 15X open road, this paper is the Idaho Farm Journal, and this advertisement is regarding the Rio Grande (Denver & Rio Grande) direct central transcontinental western railroad. Telephone number as listed; 2-1722 LOL! (paper dated as mentioned above).

 

[Blackthorn]

As you are no doubt aware, the Twenty was a price designation, and not a specific model. From what I have seen, it seems that the Dobbs Twenty was produced from sometime in the '40s through at least the early '60s.

Post a few interior shots when you can, and we should be able to refine the date estimate.

Thanks, I appreciate that, Delectans. Here you go:

What do you think?

 

[delectans]

1960's. The earlier hats had wider, brown leather sweatbands as wide as 2".

 

[Brad Bowers]

Al's on target, though Dobbs actually started putting black sweatbands in around '57-'58. It doesn't have a narrow, textured late-'60s sweat. I'd say late-'50s to perhaps '65 or so.

Brad

 

[delectans]

I was hoping you would enlighten us all with your truly encyclpaedic knowledge, Brad!

Did Dobbs continue to use the Twenty moniker into the late '60s and beyond?

 

[Blackthorn]

Thanks Brad and Al!

 

[delectans]

Pleasure, Blackthorn. Dating vintage hats with precision is difficult at best, unless they bear specific tags such as the O.P.S.(Office Of Price Stabilization) tag, which would date production between January '51 and April '53.

I believe that by the mid-'50s brim widths began to steadily decrease, along with a gradual transition to narrower, and then black sweats in the late '50s as Brad indicated.

A fine looking hat which no doubt will get plenty of noggin time!