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The Cap Faction

Stuffsmith

Fedora Lounge Artisan
Messages
808
Location
Sydney
I'm always a sucker for a good story. My artwork with antique found objects has sought the story inside the object; the mark left by the hand of the maker or some previous owner: old tools with initials carved in handles, mourning jewelry with a loved one's lock of hair and a scrap of love note underneath.

So it was a very pleasant surprise to have this ugly duckling amongst my shipment of 1920's caps. A rather stingy 8-panel in an unassuming brown tweed, it is a lovely shape but otherwise unremarkable.

8-panel-mishap-1.jpg 8-panel-mishap-2.jpg 8-panel-mishap-3.jpg

Until you happen to view it from above. On first glance you notice the lack of a crown button. Then, looking further, you spy what looks like a stray grey piece of yarn stuck to it.

8-panel-mishap-4.jpg

Then as it turns towards the rear, the mystery deepens, then is revealed.

8-panel-mishap-5.jpg

An unmistakeable "8". Now it's clear: two of the eight panels were inadvertently sewn wrong-side out at the factory, revealing the numbers "7" and "8" threaded through the wool as number guides for those assembling them. Perhaps after sewing they noticed the mishap and so opted to leave the button off of this 'factory reject.'

8-panel-mishap-6.jpg 8-panel-mishap-7.jpg 8-panel-mishap-8.jpg

That simple visual cue of human error in an increasingly mechanized world has turned this cap from an unremarkable one to an object of meaning and beauty for me. I'll wear it and think of the hands that buzzed around it 90 years ago, and the evidence of those hands that is graffiti-ed right onto it.
 
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A nice story, certainly, but wouldn't they have simply unpicked the numbers? Or rejected it long before putting in the sweatband, bill, label etc. Why would they have put in a liner without having put on the button?

I suspect rather than a reject, that this is just an unfinished hat.

I like the simplicity of it.
 

Stuffsmith

Fedora Lounge Artisan
Messages
808
Location
Sydney
Quite possibly, Pete. But the result is the same! You've got a great point about the liner. Maybe this style didn't have a button at all? But the numbers are so cool. I'm happy with it unresolved! :)
 
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I think it probably was supposed to have a button. Even low end customers (or children in this case) wouldn't accept the lack of neatness at the top of the crown. Is there no evidence (impression in the fabric, for example) that there might at some point have been a button? No sign of the internals of the button rolling around inside the liner?
 

Stuffsmith

Fedora Lounge Artisan
Messages
808
Location
Sydney
No way, it's never had a button. Still had the tissue in it, been in a stockroom for ever. I have seen a vintage 8-panel cap once with no button that looked like it was on purpose, but this looks like it needed one.
 

ManofKent

My Mail is Forwarded Here
Messages
3,039
Location
United Kingdom
Interesting piece Keith. It does seem odd that they added the liner, but I can't come up with a better guess as to why it has the numbers.
 
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13,672
Location
down south
Nice little mystery you've got there Keith. I'm with you that it is probably an f-up. The sweat also appears poorly sewn in near the size tag, and I'll second BK in that it probably should have had a button. I've seen caps without one, but they were immaculately pieced together at the center, that one's a little wonky.
As to how it ended up with a liner, being a factory made cap it probably was put together production style, not sewn 100% by the same employee. When the liner installer ran across the pooched up outer in his stack of work.....
udapuheg.jpg


Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2
 

Stuffsmith

Fedora Lounge Artisan
Messages
808
Location
Sydney
Too funny, Dale, and probably painfully close to the truth. I love my cap even more now: another set of hands involved in this little baby!

Thanks Ed and Richard!
 
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Stuffsmith

Fedora Lounge Artisan
Messages
808
Location
Sydney
Great caps, Johnny!

Here's my first awkward attempt at a back-band cap. A very hard pattern to match, but I did what I could...

deco-8-panel-1.jpg deco-8-panel-2.jpg deco-8-panel-3.jpg deco-8-panel-4.jpg deco-8-panel-5.jpg
 

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