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Lee hats

Messages
19,427
Location
Funkytown, USA
Moon's Lee luck must have rubbed off. Not on me, but on my wife. Scored this Lee Black Label All American at the Heart of Ohio Antique Center yesterday:

JLB Lee 2.jpg JLB Lee 1.jpg JLB Lee 5.jpg JLB Lee 10.jpg JLB Lee 11.jpg

Very nice, lightweight felt - also a very nice light gray/Dove gray color, deep and rich. Very supple and easily shaped.

JLB Lee 7.jpg JLB Lee 8.jpg JLB Lee 15.jpg

I've been wanting to get her a classic fedora for a while, and at $20, how could I go wrong? O, the joys of a smaller head!

Crown's about 5 3/4" open, bound brim is 2 5/8". It looks like it just came out of the box.

JLB Lee 14.jpg
 
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Messages
19,427
Location
Funkytown, USA
Does anybody have an inkling on Blue vs. Black Label? My guess is Blue Label is/was a higher quality. This hat was obviously produced later than Moon's Blue Label, which is what I most often see on the Bay and the like. Personally, I've never seen a Black Label.
 
Messages
15,083
Location
Buffalo, NY
This hat was obviously produced later than Moon's Blue Label, which is what I most often see on the Bay and the like.

I don't think so. Both hats are post-war, my guess within a year or so of 1950. Yours has the soft fabric reed which appears in lightweight low-priced traveling hats in the postwar 1940s. It has that great mid-ribbon style of the Playboy, Bantam, Wanderer, Gadabout and others - very nice.

Both Lee hats are great examples - congratulations. :eusa_clap You may want to spend a little time at the Lee Lounge, which has most of the discussion of Frank Lee's Hats.
 

moontheloon

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,592
Location
NJ
Fruno that is a wonderful find... Gorgeous hat bro... Just killer!!



As far as the colors... When I asked after getting my first Lee someone posted a link to a chart diagramming the Lee color/quality levels.... I can't find it for some reason... I thought I saved it.
I think it was JLee who posted it... Hopefully whoever it was will see this and post it again .... I'd like to have it as well


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moontheloon

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,592
Location
NJ
Ah there it is Fruno...

Post #115 in the thread Alan linked


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Messages
19,427
Location
Funkytown, USA
Thank you for the comments on my wife's new lid. And thanks Alan for the information on the age, etc. Now I gotta find her a box. I was wondering why this thread was so short. I thought there was a longer Lee thread.
 

VintageEveryday

A-List Customer
Messages
390
Location
Woodside, NY
White label would have been their second highest quality offering

Black - $7.50
Bronze - $8.50
Blue - $10
Silver - $12.50
White - $15
Gold - $20
wow! Thanks! I knew that hat had to be great quality, but i didn't expect it to be a good as it is. I'd guesstimate it to be 1930s, but is there any way to verify this for sure? (i have photos posted elsewhere on the site)
 

moontheloon

I'll Lock Up
Messages
8,592
Location
NJ
wow! Thanks! I knew that hat had to be great quality, but i didn't expect it to be a good as it is. I'd guesstimate it to be 1930s, but is there any way to verify this for sure? (i have photos posted elsewhere on the site)
It looks 40s to me but would need to see more of it to be sure
 

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