The Dobbs Diner...

[TheDane]

Crash course in eBay-lingo:

Bowler: Some kind of hat - very often a soft fedora

Derby: See "Bowler"

Vintage: Manufactured more than a week ago

Pure Wool: Some hat-making material, that is not cotton, straw or tweed. Could be 100% belly beaver felt

 

[Brad Bowers]

Crash course in eBay-lingo:

Bowler: Some kind of hat - very often a soft fedora

Derby: See "Bowler"

Vintage: Manufactured more than a week ago

Pure Wool: Some hat-making material, that is not cotton, straw or tweed. Could be 100% belly beaver felt

Too true! lol

Brad

 

[mikespens]

Very Nice: Except for the dirt, moth tracks, and dried out sweatband you can't see in my crappy cell phone pictures

 

[EliasRDA]

Crash course in eBay-lingo:

Bowler: Some kind of hat - very often a soft fedora

Derby: See "Bowler"

Vintage: Manufactured more than a week ago

Pure Wool: Some hat-making material, that is not cotton, straw or tweed. Could be 100% belly beaver felt

Yup, agreed. :eusa_clap

 

[EliasRDA]

Picked up a dobbs from goodwills site, interesting in that they called it white but its actually a tannish color, the tag says silverbelly so maybe its dirty. [huh]



The brim is a bit messed up but I think steaming it will fix it, havent decided what to do with it yet. I'm guessing from the hat band(?) that its maybe late 60's? Any ideas from the more knowledgeable?

Sorry the tag shot is messed up, my P&S camera is having focus issues. It says Fairlawn, 7 1/2 - 60, & Silverbelly, but were UPC codes in use then? Or is this a more recent hat?

 

[Brad Bowers]

Most likely manufactured within the last 10 years. UPC barcodes have been around since 1974, but this looks quite recent.

Brad

 

[EliasRDA]

Most likely manufactured within the last 10 years. UPC barcodes have been around since 1974, but this looks quite recent.

Brad

Yah, I agree. The more I looked at that upc it looks just too flippin new. Oh well. They didnt advertise it as vintage so no biggie. [huh]

Thanks Brad

 

[ManofKent]

Crash course in eBay-lingo:

Bowler: Some kind of hat - very often a soft fedora

Derby: See "Bowler"

Vintage: Manufactured more than a week ago

Pure Wool: Some hat-making material, that is not cotton, straw or tweed. Could be 100% belly beaver felt

Very true

My favourite green fedora was listed as a brown bowler.

Trilby seems to be used to refer to anything from a wide brimmed fedora to a homburg, whilst Homburg is frequently used to describe a trilby.

 

[Rogera]

I posted a couple of pics of this in the new hats thread but here are the guts of a Dobbs I picked up today. It labeled "1940's" but I knew it wouldn't be because of the plasticized liner. I did find the blocking label inside of it and I believe the label puts the hat in the later 50s.

 

[ManofKent]

Nice find Roger - late 50's sounds about right

 

[Purplesage]

Gamebird

The sweatband is shot but the rest of the hat is in great condition. Very soft and pliable felt, almost has a velour feel to it. The hat has a 2 1/2" brim with a thin over welt, 5 3/4" open crown with braided ribbon and cellophane liner cover. I'm thinking mid to late 40s!

 

[Brad Bowers]

Actually, Purplesage, you have an exciting find there that dates between 1950-1953. First clue is the 1950s label, but that's not what is so exciting. The sweatband is a Patterson Hat Sizer, designed to automatically adjust to the wearers head. It was filed for patent by John W. Patterson, Jr., of Sacramento, CA, on May 19, 1950, and received the patent on March 24, 1953.

The store is Patterson's store, named after the original founder of the store, Jim Patterson, who founded the store in 1907, possibly 1906. John W. Patterson worked in the store as a clerk, so his son (Jim's grandson, maybe?) was also working there in the 1950s. Since the sweatband says "Patent Pending," that places it prior to March 24, 1953. It received patent number 2,632,175, and that number would be printed on sweatbands utilizing the feature after that. HCA either licensed or purchased the patent from Patterson, because it shows up on their hats under several different names, but always with the patent number.

Cool find!

Brad

 

[Purplesage]

Very interesting Brad. It's about time. I have seen the Paterson Hat Sizer on different hats just never gave it much thought. That's another good tool for dating vintage hats.

David S.

 

[Purplesage]

Before and After

I sent this Dobbs off to Optimo last year and this is the end result. I wanted to keep the original liner even though it could not be brought back to new. I let them run with it and they replaced the ribbon and brim trim with a silver blue color as well as replace the sweatband. They did a nice job but I think I preferred the original colors.

 

[Purplesage]

Dobbs Fifteen Guild Edge

5 1/2" open crown with a 2 3/8" brim with Guild Edge.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

They dulled down the Dobbs. Not a great choice in ribbon color's for sure. Common modern day ribbon choice thou most don't know how to pick the colors and just get ribbons that match the felt. Makes the hat boring for sure.

 

[Purplesage]

Ed I totally agree, they weren't very original. First time I had a hat redone so I figured they would come up with something a little more creative. Next time I will be more hands on. I still have the original ribbon which couldn't be completely cleaned but it is still in good enough shape I could have it put back on along with the gold color bound edge. Do you have any suggestions regarding who I could send it to besides Optimo, maybe someplace closer to Washington, D.C.?

 

[Purplesage]

Dobbs 5th Ave Backbow

2" snap down brim with raw edge, 5 1/2" open crown with 2 1/8" grosgrain ribbon with back bow, liner with cellophane cover.

 

[bond]

Agree with Eds sentiments re the ribbon set optimo used on the hat David . The original looks like "Tan Mist" which is used a lot on vintage hats as it's very neutral and compliments just about everything. It's the binding I use the most of on my homburg conversions and a lot of brands used the color for their brim bindings.

 

[Purplesage]

Yea Scott that was my fault for trusting Optimo to make the decision as far as the ribbon and binding color. I think I'll have it redone like the original at some point down the road.