Older Bailey Open Road Clone....????

[TopGumby]

Spotted this one on Ebay and a friend who was looking for an OR type lid snagged it after I pointed it out to him.

Showed up today, pretty nice shape, cattleman crease, silverbelly type color, three cord band, dimensions are pretty darn close to the Stetson OR and the Resistol San Antonio I have. I think it's fur felt.

The leather sweat is marked "Special Quality Hand-Creased by Bailey". There is a paper size tag showing 7-1/4. Under the sweat in the same area as the size tag attached to the inside crown is a tag that reads "To Duplicate" with a printed "7-1/4" in the size box, and a stamped "Stockman" in the style box.

Cream colored liner has a three shield crest and is marked "Bailey Royal" and "Made in California" with a line of stars separating the two phrases.

The hat came in a cardboard box marked on one side "Bailey Western Hat" with no other marking or date info.

The style and condition of the box makes me guess it's from the late forties - fifties era.

Any guesses as to when it was made?









I looked through "The Other Open Roads" thread and saw nothing quite the same, although the "Stockman" style hat from the Miller-Stockman catalogs sure looks like this hat.

[job]

That is not a dress hat like the Open road. It is a western one I would think using western weight felt. Close but not a clone.

[gtdean48]

Bailey Stockman looks to be a Stetson Stockman clone than a Open Road clone. The ribbon band is not OR style. A bound edge seems to be the differentiation to the Stetson version.
As far as age of the hat, not much has been posted on Bailey dating since they are predominantly a western maker.

[job]

I think it's like this one. My Stetson 3x.

[TopGumby]

Job, that looks darn close. It's nothing like the modern Stetson Stockman that pops up in Google searches. This old Bailey has a bound edge, and if the band was replaced with an OR style ribbon I'd be hard pressed to tell it from an OR. The felt isn't stiff like a modern Western, feels much like that Resistol and Stetson I've been comparing it to, but maybe a tad stiffer.

My buddy is more "Cowboy" than I, so it's a perfect match.

[gtdean48]

Yep, it is more closer to the Stetson Rancher than the Stockman in modern form.