Pre 1940s Stetson Westerns

[alanfgag]

Stetson Nutria

Old hat with 1940s/50s renovation - new sweat, new ribbon... thank goodness the liner is still there. The felt body is great... thin and dense but with a soft nutria hand. Red manufacturing tag with size is missing... fit is a little large.

 

[randooch]

Alan, that looks so much better than it did on the bay. Do you plan to attempt a cleaning for those spots, or maybe just let the old beauty rest?

 

[alanfgag]

Thanks Randall,

Most of the spots you see in the photos are moth chews. There is some soiling too, but steaming and brushing the felt firmly with a stiff brush helped quite a bit. The next step would be to remove the sweat and do a thorough cleaning. I don't feel a need to go there at this point. It's a nice old hat that shows age gracefully.

 

[Aureliano]

Mona Gioconda sorride guardando il tuo western, Alan! bravo!

 

[alanfgag]

Molte grazie, Ale. She watches that Garvé like a hawk and gives me that scolding smile every time she sees a new hat. Sometimes I have to turn her around!

 

[Joshbru3]

Old hat with 1940s/50s renovation - new sweat, new ribbon... thank goodness the liner is still there. The felt body is great... thin and dense but with a soft nutria hand. Red manufacturing tag with size is missing... fit is a little large.

BEAUTIFUL Nutria, Alan!! I'm glad you got that one. I saw it on ebay and was going to bid, but held off. Whats interesting about the replacement sweatband is the fact that the hatter used a machine that replicated the original "VVVVV" stitching. On one of my "Mystery Stetsons," which I believe is a 30's Playboy Air-Light, the replacement sweatband also used the same type of stitching. The reed covering is the same color as well as the sweatband color and possibly width.

 

[Dinerman]

Old hat with 1940s/50s renovation - new sweat, new ribbon... thank goodness the liner is still there. The felt body is great... thin and dense but with a soft nutria hand. Red manufacturing tag with size is missing... fit is a little large.

Variations on a theme. This is from an old NPS campaign hat.

 

[alanfgag]

Thanks Josh and Dinerman...neat to see another mark from this company. I believe they remained in existence in NYC until quite recently.

 

[alanfgag]

1930s Stetson No.1 Quality transitional

I believe our knowledge base on this variant of the No.1 Quality mark describes a reissue that appeared in the 1950s with a felt quality that did not compare well to the venerable 1930s and earlier version. This hat is an interesting crossover, with the size tag and manufacturing label dating it as mid to late 1930s. From the character of the bash, I would say this hat has some very nice felt.

auction photos:

Note the similarity of textured sweatband and mid-late 1930s manufacturing label in this example with the earlier logo.

 

[TipTop]

Old hat with 1940s/50s renovation - new sweat, new ribbon... thank goodness the liner is still there. The felt body is great... thin and dense but with a soft nutria hand. Red manufacturing tag with size is missing... fit is a little large.

WOW Alan, that is spectacular, and now I am even more furious that I bungled dropping in a last minute bid (not knowing of course what your final bid was). Congrats. I love it; Wouldn't old Harve be proud?

 

[alanfgag]

1920s/30s Nutria Fur Western

Same furry finished felt body as this earlier posted example, finished with unbound pencil curl brim and black ribbon. Judging from the condition, this must have been a very durable felt, or a hat reserved for special occasions. 4" brim, 7" crown.

Sweat is not soft sheepskin as in the other... more similar to the one used in this No.1 Quality. Round size sticker and red ribbon at the rear taped seam.

$20 retail price tag attached behind the sweat.

 

[Chepstow]

My congrats again, Alan. That's A historical Piece of the good old Western time.
Truly, beautiful Nutria fur felt, and the condition seem very good!

 

[alanfgag]

Thanks Manfred. The felt is like new and the condition overall is excellent... the ribbon has faded some, but the horsehair braid takes some attention away from that.

 

[Cicero]

Wow Alan, another great hat you've got there. :eusa_clap

 

[buler]

Thanks Manfred. The felt is like new and the condition overall is excellent... the ribbon has faded some, but the horsehair braid takes some attention away from that.

Alan, another one for the Stetson museum. Did the braided horsehair come with it.

Can you post a macro close-up of the braid please?

thanks
B

 

[carouselvic]

nice

 

[alanfgag]

Thank you for the comments.

Bill, the horsehair braid came with the hat, though I don't know how far back the two have traveled together. 2 braids go all the way around, making four where they cross. A third braid is used in the center, stopping where the two sets of strands cross (if that makes sense). Here are a few close-ups.

 

[alanfgag]

A few additional gleanings.

In the early Stetson soft hats (circa 1920) with reeded sweatbands (both dress and western styles), the open ends of the reed wire do not meet up at the rear seam. They overlap about two inches to the right of the center seam of the sweat, with a bit of waxlike material to hold the two ends together. I mistakenly called this a repair in my previously posted 13 Star Stetson, but now I notice it on other early hats, including this one.

Stetson Star

 

[alanfgag]

Comparing these two examples - which share the same block (#406) and 7" crown and, judging by the close sweatband lot numbers (within a couple of hundred), are close in age - suggests the option resellers had to develop a range of Stetson styles that was uniquely theirs. Purely guesswork, but I'm thinking that Stetson bodies were completed to retailer order in the finishing shop. Distributors could choose ribbons, sweatbands and brim treatments allowing them a custom mix of Stetson branded hats for their customer.

Looking back at the pages of the White & Davis catalog posted by RLK (I've included a few pages below) - the hat designs, including the model names, were probably retailer derived. In the two hats below, the manufacturing label has the same data, but the orange reorder labels show completely different letters and numbers. Where these unique to each hat, or to a specific wholesale lot (dozen, half dozen...)? Whichever, they must have been archived to allow Stetson retailers to easily reorder hats with the same specs as a past shipment. Nothing magical about this... just reflections on a relationship between major manufacturers and distributors that is pretty much extinct in the marketplace for consumer products today.

note the American Indian sourced horsehair braids on this page:

 

[rlk]

Fantastic hat!

Here's J.B.Stetson Jr. in 1933