Dating an Open Road !

[slimshat]

http://princeinacowboysuit.blogspot.dk/

Gentlemen, Does anyone has an idea for what decade this is ? I am thinking 1960s ?


Best Slim

 

[DougC]

I'll play--looks like a 50s or 60s version.

 

[DJH]

I'm trying to type quickly before Rusty moves this to the Date Your Hat thread.

I'd say mid 60's or later, based on the rectangular size tag.

 

[gtdean48]

Late 60's, possible early 70's, need better shots of tag & sweatband to be sure...

 

[RBH]

I'm trying to type quickly before Rusty moves this to the Date Your Hat thread.

I'd say mid 60's or later, based on the rectangular size tag.

My moving days are over.

 

[slimshat]

Thanks guys, I added a few images of tag and sweatband. Hat itself is in transit.

http://princeinacowboysuit.blogspot.dk/

 

[danofarlington]

http://princeinacowboysuit.blogspot.dk/

Gentlemen, Does anyone has an idea for what decade this is ? I am thinking 1960s ?


Best Slim

I don't claim to really know anything about it, but I just bought a 7x clear beaver on EBay (a kind of Open Road with fancier beaver felt), which was given to the seller's father for years of service at Ford in 1951, and the logo on the inside crown looks like your logo. By contrast, I have a Stetson 25 (yet another Open Road with fancy felt) with a different logo, that looks more 70s. So my guess is that yours is a 50s hat, though I do not know how much later or earlier it could be.

 

[gtdean48]

.... So my guess is that yours is a 50s hat, though I do not know how much later or earlier it could be.

That is not a 50's size tag. Mid to late 60's at best. The 3X sweatband emblem would be round & horizontally aligned if a 50s. Square & vertical is 60's. The crest in the liner also looks late 60's with the colors.

 

[DJH]

I tend to go with what the Man Who Likes Diners says:

Square tags started showing up in the '60s

 

[danofarlington]

We need a Stetson decade-by-decade directory with photos elucidating all of this for reference by the curious. Hatco could do this...if they wanted to.

 

[DJH]

Here you go Dan - Dating Vintage Stetsons by Size Tag

There's another one for dating by liner as well.

I use the links in Lefty's signature to find these useful threads - not seen him for a while!

 

[danofarlington]

That's interesting. My 1951 7x clear beaver matches up size tag-wise by that. Now my big mystery is a black, pencil-brim hat with no liner, no size tag, looks ancient, with one of those coat-of-arms Stetson stamps on the sweatband with "John B. Stetson Company" across the bottom of that logo. Oh, well. I'll wallow in the thought that it might be 20s or before. I wonder how we would recognize one of those, anyway?

 

[slimshat]

THANKS for your input ... it is exciting to get closer. I tend to think, intuitively that a soft looking cattleman's is indicating very early 70s or before. Seems the Cattleman got more pinched looking later. I personally like the soft one - for that particular look. Like it was hand shaped almost.
Will post pictures of the hat when I get it.
So long, Hans

 

[TomS]

We need a Stetson decade-by-decade directory with photos elucidating all of this for reference by the curious. Hatco could do this...if they wanted to.

Excellent idea. I bet a self published book would do well also.

 

[slimshat]

Great idea !

 

[slimshat]

Dating clue ??
Got the hat - it's nice.
There is a new picture of the union emblem on the back of the size tag. Hat crown feels rich and is really soft yet it feels strong ... it can be bashed freely ... no steam necessary - I had hoped for this. Best felt I have yet owned even though its only stamped 3x beaver. Evidently the hat was made at a time when 3x Beaver was really nice. The sweat band is also the nicest leather I have yet seen, better quality, soft as suede on the back side

The felt is significantly nicer than my Akubra Campdraft - but the Campdraft is closer to this Stetson in look and feel than I had thought. The Stetson has a slightly less rounded blocking, but it is marginal.
http://princeinacowboysuit.blogspot.dk/2012/06/blog-post.html

 

[gtdean48]

Mid 1960's is my entry...

 

[slimshat]

Feels and looks that way. Thanks again for the input !
Do you know when the wind-cord went away for good ? Is it a dating criteria ?

Will post a few shots of what is going on under the sweat band - very different than more recent Stetsons I think.

 

[gtdean48]

...Do you know when the wind-cord went away for good ? Is it a dating criteria ?
....

Wind trollies are not that a reliable of dating tool unless they are present.
Not being present does not mean the hat didn't come with one as much as the original owner may not have kept it.
Your main dating items is the square beaver 3X on the sweat. Earlier models would be sideways & circular JBS crests.
That plus the size tag then the crest in the liner....lots of threads out there covering the confusion that is vintage Stetsons....

 

[TomS]

Wind trollies are not that a reliable of dating tool unless they are present.
Not being present does not mean the hat didn't come with one as much as the original owner may not have kept it.
Your main dating items is the square beaver 3X on the sweat. Earlier models would be sideways & circular JBS crests.
That plus the size tag then the crest in the liner....lots of threads out there covering the confusion that is vintage Stetsons....

As always, you are a terrific resource on these great hats. Thanks, Tom!