aswatland
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Alan Eardley said:Andrew,
Can I point out that the date in a patent number does not indicate the year of manufacture of the object (Mick Prodger makes this mistake) but the year in which the original patent was granted? Until 1995 this was 15 years.
Also, do you have any documentary evidence that the two numbers after IAC on a label refer to an abbreviated date?
Alan
Alan, I have never stated the patent number indicates the date of manufacture of an object! It is when the patent is registered! There is no documentary evidence about the stamped numbers on Irvin labels. Of course the 33 may not be the date. It might stand for batch number?
What we do know is that by 1935 IAC printed a contract date on their jacket labels and dispensed with a printed stamp. 471922/35 is on Paddy's mid '30s jacket along with the Patent no-407405/32. The 35 here is the date of the contract, although no necessarily the date of the jacket and the 32 is the date the patent was issued. Here's the label:
And here is the earlier label on my jacket, which is the same as the one from the 1932 Irvin in Prodger's book. Prodger's label has a blank rectangle where the stamp would go.
I have seen later IAC jackets with the rectangle stamped with a number which is not the date as the example from a 1941 jacket below shows.
If one discounts the 33 on the label I would still say that judging by the colour of the jacket, the zips and their leather pulls, the thin seam tapes and the style of label it is an early Irvin, dating from the period 1933-5. Of course I may be wrong!