Last month havershaw was telling us about some Borsalinos in the Buy It Now section of ebay. You send the money to Washington state, and the hat shows up from Europe. There were three still listed, but too expensive and a size too small. A week later they showed up as auctions with $9.99 opening bids. Of course I bid on all three, but I only won one. And it took three weeks to arrive from Bulgaria.
Here it is:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...30010795258&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1
The seller's measurements were a little off (they stated a size 5 would be 21.5 inches). I measure the inside at 22 inches, the crown is about 4.5 to 5 inches, the ribbon 7/8 inch, brim almost 2.25 inches.
The felt is amazingly soft and thin. I can easily bash it just as Hemingway Jones demonstrated on his Borsalino. It imagine it could be rolled for packing with no problems. This is a beautiful hat that looks like it came directly from the factory.
The shop's stamp is:
Simeon Zlateff
Rue Alabinska 31
Sofia
To the left of the shop's name is the Bulgarian royal coat of arms from 1930-1946 and the words Fournisseur Royal (Royal Warrant) underneath.
All of the writing is in Roman letters with French words. (useless trivia bit: the cyrillic alphabet, which is commonly called the Russian alphabet, was actually developed by a Bulgarian monk.)
It is unlined which should be fine even in a hard NW Florida winter. The "sticker" in the top has the Borsalino name, "marca depositata" and Trionfo under a oil silk cover. There is a red-and-white size tag and a Eulen tag. Both tags are paper. It also has a reeded sweatband.
The tag under the sweatband has only a five digit seriel number. Every other Borsalino I've seen had ten digits.
It has a wind cord, but the button is missing. The ribbon is also a bit crumpled in a couple of places. I hope a little steam with help smooth the ribbon out. I will also need to stretch it one size to fit my head.
I'm going to take a wild stab and say this hat dates to the thirties or early forties.
Here it is:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...30010795258&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MEWN:IT&rd=1
The seller's measurements were a little off (they stated a size 5 would be 21.5 inches). I measure the inside at 22 inches, the crown is about 4.5 to 5 inches, the ribbon 7/8 inch, brim almost 2.25 inches.
The felt is amazingly soft and thin. I can easily bash it just as Hemingway Jones demonstrated on his Borsalino. It imagine it could be rolled for packing with no problems. This is a beautiful hat that looks like it came directly from the factory.
The shop's stamp is:
Simeon Zlateff
Rue Alabinska 31
Sofia
To the left of the shop's name is the Bulgarian royal coat of arms from 1930-1946 and the words Fournisseur Royal (Royal Warrant) underneath.
All of the writing is in Roman letters with French words. (useless trivia bit: the cyrillic alphabet, which is commonly called the Russian alphabet, was actually developed by a Bulgarian monk.)
It is unlined which should be fine even in a hard NW Florida winter. The "sticker" in the top has the Borsalino name, "marca depositata" and Trionfo under a oil silk cover. There is a red-and-white size tag and a Eulen tag. Both tags are paper. It also has a reeded sweatband.
The tag under the sweatband has only a five digit seriel number. Every other Borsalino I've seen had ten digits.
It has a wind cord, but the button is missing. The ribbon is also a bit crumpled in a couple of places. I hope a little steam with help smooth the ribbon out. I will also need to stretch it one size to fit my head.
I'm going to take a wild stab and say this hat dates to the thirties or early forties.
