LIST YOUR HAT BOOKS

[Akubra Man]

I have two hat books

Both are about the Akubra hat, the company that makes them and the people who wear them. Both are a good read. What else would Akubra man read?

The Akubra Hat by Jill Bowen

Akubra Is Australian for Hat by Grenville Turner.

 

[Lefty]

I recently picked up The Story of Two Famous Hatters, by Robert R. Updegraff. It's a 1926 book that tells the stories of the Knox and Dunlap Companies in the same way that the Hats of the Century book tells the Mallory story. My copy has a notation in pencil that the book was donated to the St. Louis Public Library by the Knox Hat Company in 1929. Like the Mallory and Borsalino books, this is a great historical document as to the company (to the extent that one can read beyond the self-aggrandizement), but provides little information about hats.

 

[WildCelt]

They both sound like something that I could sit down and pour over whilst drinking a Martini---stirred not shaken.j

Absolutely. "Stir, never shake. It bruises the gin."

 

[jimmy the lid]

Is this book a history of the Stetson Company or is it a History of Stetson hats? I would be very interested in the details of their hats i.e. when they used certain sweatband materials and liner designs. I would like more information on which "Quality" designations they used during which periods.

I'm less interested in the actual company and it's various stages of "life".

Any information you could provide would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

Gary

Gary -- It's a little of both. The text covers details about the history of the company, but it also discusses the hats, as well. That being said, I can assure you that the kinds of things you are interested in are covered in much more detail here on the Lounge. This book does not really provide the kind of detailed info you are talking about with regard to the hats themselves. Still, I am glad to own it. It is a useful reference, and has plenty of good photos. The problem is that the photos are not necessarily tied to particular dates -- but they are instructive, nonetheless.

I have fantasized that Hatco might let a team of Lounge researchers visit their archives for a few days so that we could try to dig a little deeper into some of the questions that interest us. I would volunteer for that assignment in a second.

Cheers,
JtL

 

[PabloElFlamenco]

I recently received a copy of Omaggio Al Cappello: A tribute to the Hat, 1857-1957

The bizarre:
... things like "man wears a hat, beast does not, but man is still a beast." Crazy.


... "I began work at the factory in 1927 as a finisher. My father was a finisher. I was here when the bombs came. People ran everywhere."

lol lol lol hilarious (even though I do include some serious form of reserve on the actual, true funniness of the second statement...fftopic: )

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I scanned a book about Mallory, by Mallory, brought out in 1927 or so. I don't recall the details as it's on my computer at home. More later today.

bk

 

[carouselvic]

http://images.google.com/imgres?img...um=1&hl=en&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-26,GGLD:en&sa=N

Just the common ones that have already been mentioned. Connoisseur did a feature story The Perfect Panama July 1983

 

[Lefty]

It sounds like it might be this one.

I scanned a book about Mallory, by Mallory, brought out in 1927 or so. I don't recall the details as it's on my computer at home. More later today.

bk

 

[Lefty]

I posted this in the Borso Brotherhood, but it seems to fit well here as well.

It's one of the cheapest and, while one of the very few books that has any information on Borsalino, least worthwhile books I own.
-But for $2, it's also one of the cheapest.

*Note that there are 2 books with this title.

 

[carter]

John B Stetson by Elbert Hubbard

I picked this up on ebay recently.

It was published by Hubbard's Roycroft Press http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roycroft_Press
and is completely intact though fragile.

 

[Lefty]

Very nice, Carter. I watched that one a few times, as the seller continued to lower the price.

While I'm sure they're not as nice, reprints of that book and another by Hubbard (A Little Journey to the Home of John B. Stetson) can be had for around $15.
John B. Stetson

A Little Visit...

I can't remember if it was through Google books or another source, but I've read one of these online.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

It sounds like it might be this one.

No, that's not it. The book i'm talking about was about 18 or 20 pages, and was about Mallory production methods.

[Edit] it's called "Hat Making" and the credited writer is C. A. Mallory. Copyright date is not noted, but the book is searchable. The spiel at the top of page 1 reads:

From beaver's back, to Man's head. Being a concise explanation about what your hat is made of, how it is made, and why Mallory hats have been at the head for over 100 years.

[Edit no. 2] Checking the Apparel Arts article from 1932 called Gentlemen Hatters which includes this book in its bibliography, there is no copyright date noted.

bk

 

[Brad Bowers]

bk,

Anything in Gentlemen Hatters about John Cavanagh and Cavanagh/Dobbs/Crofut & Knapp hats?

Brad

 

[Lefty]

This has been discussed in other threads, and rather than post my own comments on Debbie Henderson's Hat Talk, I'll just give this thread a :arated:

 

[Baron Kurtz]

bk,

Anything in Gentlemen Hatters about John Cavanagh and Cavanagh/Dobbs/Crofut & Knapp hats?

Brad

Some. I put the sections here. nothing you don't know already, i expect, Brad. Incidentally this is the same article (1932) in which a hat store salesman counted 100 "well" dressed men walking past his store. 12 were wearing hats.

"John B Stetson was employed as a journeyman hatter in the old C. & K. Shop on Main Street in South Norwalk …"

"… there were great hatters before Stetson. First there was Mallory (1823), then there was Knox (1838), then Crofut & Knapp (1858), then Stetson (1865). James Knapp within a year after his founding of C. & K. made his presence felt as a most potent force. To him is generally accorded the credit for having been the first to introduce the derby hat to America. All hat styles in those days were presented to the trade by name rather than by number and an old story goes to the effect that an English "clark" in a store on lower Broadway, upon being shown the first sample of the hard hat made in the C. & K. factory, suggested that it be called "The Darby". No-one knew, ever after, whether he had in mind the Earl of Derby or the horse race. In either event, the name sounded fearfully English and that was the big idea."

"C. & K. were regarded as innovators of importance and were rewarded by a brisk and growing business …"

"John Cavanagh. President, as everyone knows, of Cavanagh-Dobbs, which means C. & K.. Knappfelt, Hodshon, Berg, and Dobbs, and one of the industry's most colourful personalities. He could make you a hat himself. Native of South Norwalk, but citizen of the world, a stylist by instinct and hatter by trade, he has been with C. & K. so long (50 years) that he is C. & K. to everyone. Inventor (1913) of the Cavanagh Edge Process, and promoter (now) of The Green Hat, he had a fine mother who had a good son. Between them they saw to it that he had $5,000 by the age of twenty-one."

"F. H. Montgomery. An "alumnus", like John B. Stetson, Phillip Knapp, and John Cavanagh, of that great training school of hatters, the old C. & K. shop, where he went to work as a boy. Fletcher Montgomery became Secretary and Treasurer of Crofut & Knap; left in 1917 to become President of Knox."

bk

 

[Brad Bowers]

"John B Stetson was employed as a journeyman hatter in the old C. & K. Shop on Main Street in South Norwalk …"

promoter (now) of The Green Hat

Thanks, bk! I didn't know that about Stetson. And what the heck is a Green Hat (insert environmentally-friendly hat jokes here)? That's one that I haven't run across before. Any ideas?

It's an interesting dynamic, which I hope to someday to more fully understand, between the Stetson company and what became Hat Corporation of America. John Cavanagh did his best to grow the company through retail sales and company mergers, but could never quite beat Stetson as the number one hat company. Part of this, I suspect, has to do with market positioning. Stetson has always been seen as the Everyman's Hat, while the the Hat Corp brands appear to have been seen by the hat-buying public as more upscale. At least, that's the way it looks to me. Both companies made all levels of hats, regardless of how the public viewed them, and sales reflected as much.

Brad

 

[jamespowers]

Thanks, bk! I didn't know that about Stetson. And what the heck is a Green Hat (insert environmentally-friendly hat jokes here)? That's one that I haven't run across before. Any ideas?

It's an interesting dynamic, which I hope to someday to more fully understand, between the Stetson company and what became Hat Corporation of America. John Cavanagh did his best to grow the company through retail sales and company mergers, but could never quite beat Stetson as the number one hat company. Part of this, I suspect, has to do with market positioning. Stetson has always been seen as the Everyman's Hat, while the the Hat Corp brands appear to have been seen by the hat-buying public as more upscale. At least, that's the way it looks to me. Both companies made all levels of hats, regardless of how the public viewed them, and sales reflected as much.

Brad

I think I would rather be viewed as a high end hat company that sold some reasonable hats than an everyman's hat company that sold high end hats once in a while.
The Cavanagh, Dunlap and Knox hat brands were carefully constructed to be perceived as high end hats that gave you a great hat for the money. Adam, Champ and Lee held the low ground for economical hats. Stetson and Hat Corp. could compete with them but didn't want to be know as the cheapest hats around. Market positioning can be constraining but it can also be a goal to shoot for.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

And what the heck is a Green Hat (insert environmentally-friendly hat jokes here)? That's one that I haven't run across before. Any ideas?

I suspect it's as mundane as "The colour green".

I have more to say on Stetson, vis a vis prices, with more quotes from Gentlemen Hatters(this, i suppose, keeps it within the purview of hat books) but the whiskey is clouding my vision, so more tomrrow.

bk

 

[jamespowers]

I suspect it's as mundane as "The colour green".

I have more to say on Stetson, vis a vis prices, with more quotes from Gentlemen Hatters(this, i suppose, keeps it within the purview of hat books) but the whiskey is clouding my vision, so more tomrrow.

bk

What kind of whisky---for future reference of course. :cheers1:

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Sad to say, it's the own brand whiskey of a famous supermarket in the UK. They sell a single malt 10 year old Islay, and a single malt 10 year old Speyside. The one i'm drinking tonight is their 12 year old single malt Highland.

The Islay is fantastic, and is almost certainly distilled by Laphroaig. I'm not certain who distills the Highland or Speyside. But the highland is grand stuff. My vision is often (usually) tainted by something or other but the highland malt is some of the nicest to be befogged by.

Aparently one of the other supermarkets here has deals with other distilleries. At 16.99 GBP per 70 cL bottle, i.e. half the price and more of the name brand whisky for the same stuff, it's a deal only a fool would pass up. They cannot reveal who makes the whiskey for the supermarket as naturally it would destroy the demand for the name brand whiskey of that distilery. Why pay 32 GBP for Laphroaig when the only difference between it and the supermarket own brand is the label?

bk