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RobStC

A-List Customer
Messages
371
Location
Edinburgh, Scotland
Wellington. The colors floor me.
008copym.jpg

Nice! Looks very similar, colours and overall, to my Mallory Eight Fifty, and it needed a new sweat band too! Optimo did a nice job for me, so worth an enquiry.....

Enjoy,
RobStC
 

Rodkins

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,444
Location
Orlando
Good to see, thanks Mike... around 1940 or later, perhaps.
Thanks for your excellent input, Alan. I have been wearing this one quite a bit since it came in. I think it will be a sort of very cool "beater" for me and I will wear it often with jeans. This will probably be a hat that I wear out - until it's dead.
 

m0nk

One Too Many
Messages
1,004
Location
Camp Hill, Pa
Got a Dobbs off eBay; has a 2" over welt brim and is a nice, charcoal grey. The brim is a little shorter than I'm used to but I like having something a little stingy'er around:

dobbs1.jpg


dobbs2.jpg
 
Messages
15,083
Location
Buffalo, NY
Borsalino Natalsca - Sfinge

I learned a few things today. A hat arrived that I had been watching for a long time and bought on its third go around from ebay. In discussing price with the seller, a few odd contradictions came up that were answered on opening the package. She was selling the hat for her uncle, who responded directly to my queries with this email:

Hi Alan,

I bought this hat in Santa Margarita, Italy about Feb.1952. I was told to keep the hat in the box until I was ready to wear
it. It's beautiful hat and I am sure you will be proud to wear it.

Uncle George



He never did wear it and it remained in the box for 60 years. The auction photos showed a beautiful creamy tan, but the box clearly said Palladio, which in the Borso palette as I've seen it, is a bright, cool light gray - the color of my recently posted Pocket Hat. Color balance of light hats is a big unknown in auction photos. You pays your money and takes your chances.

Although Uncle George received his hat in the signature triangular box - it's not the box intended for this hat.

sfinge8.jpg


sfinge7.jpg


Under the sweatband, the label shows the style and color.

sfinge9.jpg


I know Sfinge from my in-laws, a sticky, cream puffy dessert served by Italian Americans on special occasions. I didn't know the desert definition of Sfinge, though:

sfinge.jpg


A very apt name for this light sand toned puzzler. Heck, they could have called it silverbelly. And if Uncle George's memory serves him correctly, the newer style label without Borsalino logo might help to refine dating. Perhaps the change in labels that occurred during the O.P.S. years (some show the older label, some the newer) can be further refined to pre-1952 and 1952+?

So here is the hat, in its 60 year rumpled glory: 2 5/8" brim, showing an ultra thin 2mm binding on the top, 5mm underneath. 1 7/8" ribbon 5 1/2" open crown.

sfinge1.jpg


sfinge2.jpg


sfinge3.jpg


sfinge4.jpg


sfinge5.jpg


sfinge6.jpg


ps: I'll put some additional photos on the Brotherhood once I have a chance to steam and shape it.
pps: Thanks to CarouselVic for his huge collection of samples and dating expertise.
 
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Messages
15,083
Location
Buffalo, NY
Thank you Ale and Jeff.

Another factor in the puzzler that I forgot to add to the original post is the U.S. market Borsalino imprint. Very odd, if the owner's story is true and accurate. Some sort of Borsalino factory store selling overruns? There is no store imprint or other marking on the front or back of the sweatband. Hmmmm.?
 
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Messages
17,524
Location
Maryland
>> U.S. market Borsalino imprint.

Do you mean the use of a U.S. size instead of French Point?

Assuming the story is accurate, a U.S. market hat was sold in Italy.

By the way fantastic Borso!
 
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randooch

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,869
Location
Ukiah, California
Lordy, lordy, Alan. Another gem for the treasure chest! Have you come up with an artsy idea for all those triangular boxes, as I doubt they'll house hats any more?

MOnk, I bet you could wear that Dobbs open-crowned to good effect.
 
Messages
15,083
Location
Buffalo, NY
>> U.S. market Borsalino imprint.

Do you mean the use of a U.S. size instead of French Point?

Assuming the story is accurate, a U.S. market hat was sold in Italy.

By the way fantastic Borso!

Thanks! Both the U.S. size tag and the "made in Italy by" sweatband imprint are typical of Borsalinos sold in the U.S. market. The town he mentions - Santa Margherita Ligure is on the coast not far from Alessandria... a tourist destination in the post war years. Maybe there was a Borsalino factory outlet store? [huh]
 

rlk

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,100
Location
Evanston, IL
Liner and sweatband are both US importer's versions. Most "owner family" stories are completely wrong or incorrectly remembered. The stamp is also one generally seen on slightly later hats.
 
Messages
15,083
Location
Buffalo, NY
Liner and sweatband are both US importer's versions. Most "owner family" stories are completely wrong or incorrectly remembered. The stamp is also one generally seen on slightly later hats.

Certainly the story could be complete romance or half remembered by Uncle George. Wrong year, right place?

Were these rolled hats in boxes sold through U.S. stores?

Could be an American hat rolled in a European box... with the same model numbers, but different color and size?
 

rlk

I'll Lock Up
Messages
6,100
Location
Evanston, IL
Perhaps they exported some hats in those boxes as a more efficient storage and shipment container. Looks like the factory production label(with different colors). Of course we also don't know if those numbers applied to just one hat. The boxes I have seen previously did not have that label affixed.
 
Messages
17,524
Location
Maryland
Sorry! Actually the box paper label has UK (or is this a Borsalino conversion to US size?) and Point size. Does the hat measure US 7 1/8?
 
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Messages
17,524
Location
Maryland
The paper label appears to have Point to UK size conversion. For example Point 6 = 7 1/4.

Sorry this doesn't have anything to do with with the situation at hand but just something I noticed.
 
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