Please help me identify my vintage leather jacket

[SammyGee]

Hello All,
While going through my storage today I found a vintage leather jacket that I have had forever and completely forgotten about.
Hoping some of the super smart fellow members here can help me identify the maker and what kind of leather it is and advise on a couple restoration parts. Namely fixing the talon zipper and some wear on the collar and general advice on reconditioning.

Here is are some pictures. Thanks so much in advance for you help.

 

[JMax]

Wow. Amazing. Leather MFG Co out of LA. 30-40s. First one I’ve seen outside of books and searches online. And never this style. Wish I had this in storage.

The repair, reconditioning options are legion, and covered all over TFL. Fun and informative reads for sure. I’d give Great Leathers a go for all of it.

 

[ton312]

Super cool and unique Halfbelt. Never heard of that maker but the liner and hardware makes me think it’s definitely quite old. Looks like a 30’s HB to me. Beautiful. I too would vote for Dena at great leather for restoration.

 

[SammyGee]

Wow Thanks JMax. I picked this up back in the very slow internet days and could never find anything out about it and then the zipper broke and it got packed away until today.
Really appreciate the help.
Any idea on what kind of hide this is?

 

[TREEMAN]

NICE !!

 

[tmitchell59]

First off; don't lather up this jacket with conditioners. It doesn't appear to need it and will not "cure" the issues. The damaged areas on the upper arms yoke area need profession attention and restoration. Dena at Great Leathers is the person for the work. Let her put on the conditioners.

The jacket is c.1936, has mismatched pocket zippers. The newest Talon is on left pocket. They used what they had until the stock was gone. I've seen this on other jackets. The Left pocket Talon was probably a new piece and the other was old stock.

I don't see the main zip issues, though they are fairly typical. This would had a Sunrise Talon stop, with a beveled pull like on the pocket only larger.

I call it horsehide. Has the look. Really doesn't make much difference. During this time fine jackets were made of Goatskin, Steerhide as well as horsehide, including riding jackets and Police Jackets.

Police work was bread and butter for the shops of this era. This jacket is a civilian model of a police jacket by deleting the badge holder and replacing it with a cig pocket.

The two button cuffs were very common on all jackets from this time. Police jacket going into the 60s were using buttons/snaps instead of zippers. Zipped cuffs were being done, just not on police jackets, seems odd.

The Front of this jacket, pocket placement is in use today. We see that in Cal leathers with the style virtually unchanged since the 1930s.

It is a collectors piece at this point. I would be concerned on damaging it further by wearing.

Send some pics to Dena of the areas of need. She has done this work many times. Does not mean "Cheap and easy" it is detailed work and cost money. Depending on her solutions the cost can vary.

An original zipper can be sourced, but quite expensive. There are copies of this era zipper sold in Japan

Of course, you can just sell it.

 

[SammyGee]

Thanks This is incredibly helpful.
I'll look into this and I really appreciate you taking the time to write such a thoughtful and extensive post.

I am a recent member and I have to say I'm absolutely blown away by the amount of generous wisdom that is dispensed here.