M Hatman
I'll Lock Up
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Hat Corporation of America 1953. Love this series of ads.......
Thanks for posting these, Mark. Seems that not many of us collect ephemera, but what seems trivial can tell quite a bit about the hats we collect.
Part III
Many many thanks to Jonathan @TheOldFashioned once again. Now all you need to do is find all of these just before Christmas.
Thanks, Randy. Quite a few bowlers in there to feast your eyes on.An excellent part of history recovered, Stefan. You'll be able to address many more questions about vintage hats for us in the future.
1912 Borsalino catalog
Thanks, Bob. It's what the lounge is all about; finding it and saving it (if we can't wear it).Amazing find and rescue Stefan and Jonathan! Kudos for your efforts.
Nice Save!!!!! THAT is what it is all about!Every once in a while you stumble upon something special. I cannot thank our fellow lounger Jonathan @TheOldFashioned enough without whom this would not have happened. He was alerted to an auction of a Borsalino item and it so happened the auction house was in the Netherlands. There was only one picture, but that and the description were enough to set things in motion. Here's the picture.
Intrigueing, right? I contacted the auction house and they were very forthcoming and sent me some more pictures. Jonathan and I agreed that we needed to save this item for posterity and with his contribution I made an offer, because I could not attend the auction in person (work) and the online bidding didn't give me much confidence due to the difficulties registering. Anyway. Tuesday the hammer fell and the bid was high enough (just). Went to pick it up today.
So what is then, dang it?!
It is a march 1912 Borsalino catalog, they call it an illustrated book themselves, for the styles and colours they had on offer. So now for the good, the bad and the ugly.
The good. Well, that's obvious. It's a unique piece and it is larger in size than I expected it to be. It measures a few millimeter under 30x40cm (12x16" thereabouts). It's a miracle this thing is still around after 111 years and provides us with an insight how many styles were available at the time (all of them!).
The bad. It's not complete. There are a few pages missing from the catalog that appear to have been just torn out. Four pages seem to be missing. It's not completely in colour. Only the first few pages are in colour, it seems to give you an impression of the available colours and after that it was just about the models.
The ugly. It's not in great shape. No surprise there after all the time that went by, but this has been around the block a few times. It has some stains, foxing, tears, folds, waterdamage, you name it; it's got it.
The verdict. Despite of the condition it's in, it is well worth every penny I paid for it. There is likely no other one of these around. The auction house sure couldn't find any other examples of it and I'd imagine they have some decent resources. Guido Barberis doesn't mention it in his Borsalino books nor is there any example of an image of this catalog found elsewhere (except for the watercolour of the factory, made by Carlo Krättly in 1910). And Barberis had access to the Borsalino archives. So, it's an important piece and I'm happy as a clam.
Here are the pics (in three separate posts) I took with my phone. Have to take some real pictures or scans to document it properly for posterity. They state it is copyrighted, but I'll take my chances after 111 years.
Between these two pages the remnants of the missing pages can be seen (image below of the left hand side).