What hat are you waiting for today?

[MikeinRome]

Stetson Austral Clear Nutria, also called a "Boss of the Plains" style hat with Lot Number 8877, which I'm estimating dates hat to about 1900. Spent couple of months discussing sale and trying to estimate a date on this hat. When it arrives, will post on Boss of the Plains? thread. Has Block 684 and 4 1/2 depth. This hat is actually called an Austral model, per info on pg 6, message #116 of the Stetson Block Profile Numbers thread, and other data.

 

[MikeinRome]

How do you figure? Check the lot # page. There are a number of hats there with much lower numbers not dated that early including a No. 1 of mine with Lot # 13XX.

Been there, done that. This hat dates to before the Lot Numbers rolled over, in my opinion. Here's a pic of a Boss of Plains documented/inscribed with a 1907 date and Lot Number in the 700's (I.e. after the rollover). This hat is basically a twin of my hat. I believe my hat is a little older than the 1907 hat. The photo of the tags from the 1907 hat appear to show the same Block Number and Depth as the tag on my hat.

 

[Bamaboots]

in my opinion.

Oh. Where's the evidence they ever rolled over?

 

[MikeinRome]

Oh. Where's the evidence they ever rolled over?

You can take it or leave it, doesn't matter to me.

 

[MikeinRome]

But it does seem to. That's your lead in on every hat purchase. I'm with you, the older the better. Love Fray sweats and there are early hats out there that "may" indicate there was a rollover in the lot numbers but I've not read anything beyond speculation. So yeah, I'll leave it.

It’s like me saying this No. 1 that I’m wearing right now with a Lot # of 6XXX is older than the hat you just bought w/o anything to support that other than the number.
View attachment 519009

As I said before, I spent months looking at every angle I could think of to date this hat properly. I didn't just make a conclusion in 15 seconds. Mentioning it on Waiting For was not intended to be an in-depth discussion.

 

[MikeinRome]

You didn’t say that before, you said what you believed.

It’s obvious your hat is an old one but the No. 1 Quality is also the most common of the old western style Stetson’s out there. So, when you put such a date on a hat, making it one of the earliest seen around here, you’re probably goingto be asked about it.

Yes I did say I had spent months dating that hat, meaning the Boss of Plains. You've lost me talking about Number 1 hat. The Plains hat is Clear Nutria. You're not making any sense.

 

[Bamaboots]

You're not making any sense.

I can't argue with that. Thought I was looking at a No. 1. Cleared it out.

 

[MikeinRome]

I can't argue with that. Thought I was looking at a No. 1. Cleared it out.

I posted 2 hats on Waiting For. One of them is a Number 1, but we weren't discussing that hat, or at least I wasn't.

 

[BobHufford]

Royal Stetson.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Never heard of Linney before:

 

[deadlyhandsome]

A complete mystery:

 

[MikeinRome]

Stetson Austral Clear Nutria, also called a "Boss of the Plains" style hat with Lot Number 8877, which I'm estimating dates hat to about 1900. Spent couple of months discussing sale and trying to estimate a date on this hat. When it arrives, will post on Boss of the Plains? thread. Has Block 684 and 4 1/2 depth. This hat is actually called an Austral model, per info on pg 6, message #116 of the Stetson Block Profile Numbers thread, and other data.

Postscript - Got the Austral, but the Lot Number isn't 8877, it's 6877, so ignore the early 1900's date I'd estimated. It's actually about 1934.

 

[steur]

Never heard of Linney before:

View attachment 519509 View attachment 519510 View attachment 519511

Linney is an English brand, Brent. They've been around for a while and I think they still exist today. Their older liners looked like this:

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Postscript - Got the Austral, but the Lot Number isn't 8877, it's 6877, so ignore the early 1900's date I'd estimated.

I’m really confused now.
Following your theory wouldn’t that make the 6877 older than your previous 8877 early pre-rollover 1900’s dating?
Also, what year are you estimating this rollover?
How can you tell a low 3 digit lot number as pre or post rollover?
Same question for 4 digit lot numbers?
I don’t dispute your hypothesis, there is sense in it but could you please clarify more fully for us?
Thanks
B

Ps: if not here then maybe in the Lot number thread.

 

[MikeinRome]

Based on a documented 1907 Stetson Austral with a Lot Number in the 700's, I estimate the rollover happened about 1903-4. When I thought my hat was Lot # 8877, that would have been a number from before the rollover. Now that I know the real number is 6877, I can just look at the hat and know it's not from before the rollover because a 6000 number would put it back in the 1880's or so and I can just look at my hat and know it's not that old. So it's actually about a 1934 hat, because another hat that's only 1 Lot Number away has an NRA tag from that period.....All the low hat numbers are right in the same time period around 1910 and just before. The highest known numbers after the rollover are only around 8000, so if you have a high 8000 number or 9000 number, it's probably a pre-rollover hat, unless it has obvious modern features, which is most unlikely. There are no known 9000 number hats after the rollover, and hardly any even in the low 8000's.... I did some calculating on the Lot Numbers after the rollover going from Lot 1 to Lot 8000 in the timeframe from about 1904 to 1940, and figured on average that Stetson would go through about 257 Lot Numbers a year to reach 8000 in about 1940, but that number is subject to great change due to social, political, and economic issues in any particular year or period.

 

[AbbaDatDeHat]

Based on a documented 1907 Stetson Austral with a Lot Number in the 700's, I estimate the rollover happened about 1903-4. When I thought my hat was Lot # 8877, that would have been a number from before the rollover. Now that I know the real number is 6877, I can just look at the hat and know it's not from before the rollover because a 6000 number would put it back in the 1880's or so and I can just look at my hat and know it's not that old. So it's actually about a 1934 hat, because another hat that's only 1 Lot Number away has an NRA tag from that period.

Thank you
Maybe we should take this discussion to the Lot number thread.
B

 

[Cuvier]

I'm still waiting on my Cuenca Havana Panama Hat from PHD, but looks like I won't have much longer to wait. They're about done. Here are a couple of pictures they just sent.

I'm getting a few hat bands to change it up a bit as well.

 

[Edward]

A few months ago, I picked up a couple of Bronson repro A3 mechanic's caps via eBay. Having now had the chance to wear those and enjoy them, in a moment of madness I also decided to risk trying a denim Daisy May. I don't as a rule like bucket hats, but the DM has niggled ta me for a long time as a predecessor design to the Nam era boonie hats I used to wear in Summer years ago. I'm seeing it as something to snatch when taking the hound out round the grounds in full Summer heat. In the midst of that eBay excitement, I also managed somehow to order a PoW variation on the denim A3 cap as well, as it intrigued me.... That one will likely see much less wear than the regular A3, but I can see it coming out alongside some leather and denim at some point.

As to "real" hats, I'm eying up a new furfelt or two for the Autumn, something from the Hat Centre in North London, in both sable and navy blue.

 

[deadlyhandsome]

Linney is an English brand, Brent. They've been around for a while and I think they still exist today. Their older liners looked like this:
View attachment 519977

Thanks, Stefan. As per usual, the older hat looks better.