I tried searching the forum to see if it had been posted before, but couldn't find it.I am really into the history so maybe not typical.
Thanks! The felt on this one is very light weight. The sweatband might weigh as much as the felt.
Super nice. Please ignore my question in the WHAYWT thread regarding this hat. The answers are right here (I should have known).Black Hat, measures 58cm, Crown Open 6 inches, Brim 2 1/4 inches, 84 grams probably later 1930s. This is the fourth hat from my recent find. It doesn't have any labels or company marks. Not sure if it's Wool or Fur Felt (or blend). The felt is extremely light in weight with a very soft hand. It also has a very nice distressed leather sweatband which has buckled. The construction is primitive but the results are not.
I was looking into this some more, and realised there was J Heinrich Ita in Vienna, but also the Ita hat factory in Amstetten (as in the display I posted a picture of). I was not sure whether they were actually related so I did some digging while I couldn't sleep.
The hat factory in Amstetten was founded by the Englishman Thomas Gramlick in 1908 in an existing mill. He then sold it on to Vinzenz Nobel in 1911, and 5 years later it came into the hands of Gustav and Ludwig Ita. On the obituary notice on Steve's site I saw they were J. heinrich Jta's children, so there is the link I was looking for! In 1919 Heinrich Ita (the grandson I assume) is in charge of the factory and he expands it enormously, making it one of Amstetten's most important businesses. By the beginning of the 1930s the company employed 900 workers in day and night Shifts, with almost all of the output being exported to England, until export to the UK became difficult and had to be halted due to the political situation in the lead up to WWII.
After the war the company's fate changed, although many women from Amstetten still found employment in the hat factory in the post war period. However, in the end the company folded, and the outdated factory building and site were sold to the German garment company Bücking and the municipality of Amstetten.
Source of this information (in German): http://heimatforschung-noe.blogspot.de/2012/08/von-der-kranzer-muehle-zur-shopping-city.html
Some images of the hat factory in Amstetten:
Women at work in the factory, 14 june 1949
Source: http://www.bildarchivaustria.at/Pages/ImageDetail.aspx?p_iBildID=3167369
Entrance to the factory, named Breitmühle after the previous owners of the mill Anton and Katharina Breit (before it was a hat factory), also 14 june 1949
Source: http://www.bildarchivaustria.at/Pages/ImageDetail.aspx?p_iBildID=3176078
Great information! In my pre WWII catalog 3 factory locations are listed including Amstetten. Linzer Strasse 140 was the original factory. This is also the case in the 1926 Austrian Hat Industry guide. I think I looked into the St. Gallen, Switzerland factory but can't remember the details.
In the Kelly's Directory Volume 2, Europe 1964 only the Linzer Strasse 140 is listed. I can't remember if the Linzer Strasse 140 factory survived WWII.
From your photos the Amstetten factory survived WWII. This 1929 receipt only lists Linzer Strasse 140 although there were 2 other factory locations. It's possible this address is used because it's the original factory location.
I have only seen the Wien designation on the hats (pre and post WWII). It's highly possible they sold non branded finished hats, semi finished hats and felt hoods based on your information.
Celia, I know that G.A. Dunn & Co. used J. Hückel´s Söhne semi finished hats. There are few examples posted here. Here is one on my website.
Great photos! I checked the hat and of course no company mark on the paper label. I will have to check with my friend whose shop sold the hat. I didn't see a company name listed. They are machine formed so later. You see a lot use of English brand names like this especially post WWII.
). In the end it was decided that this would be too much competition for the english hat industry, so the proposal was scrapped. Then of course with WWII approaching and the Anschluss of Austria more tariffs were imposed and then the import of Austrian hats pretty much stopped, as the Article about the Amstetten factory I posted confirms.
Thank you for the British Parliament story. A while ago I came across a British trade study from the same time period where they couldn't understand why the British Hat Companies couldn't match the Austrian Velour coming out of Czechoslovakia (Austria up to WWI) and Austria. I looked for it recently but couldn't find it.Thanks for the link to the Hückel / G.A. Dunn & co velour hat on your site. As you well know, Austrian velour hats were very much sought after in England before WWII. An interesting bit of historical information I once came across is that in 1933-34 (If I remember correctly), there was actually a discussion in the British Parliament about whether tariffs on Austrian velour hats should be scrapped in order to support the Austrian economy (and perhaps also because MPs wouldn't mind paying a bit less for their nice velours
