The Cap Faction

[Chepstow]

Nice gifts, Richard - you've got a lovely collection of headgear!! OK, now sing it with me: Tweedy King, Oh Richard You Are.... (blame my hammy dad, I'm not responsible)

TwoTypes, keep those vintage ads comin', I'm loving them!!

+1
couldn't say it better!

 

[Stuffsmith]

I'm always a sucker for a good story. My artwork with antique found objects has sought the story inside the object; the mark left by the hand of the maker or some previous owner: old tools with initials carved in handles, mourning jewelry with a loved one's lock of hair and a scrap of love note underneath.

So it was a very pleasant surprise to have this ugly duckling amongst my shipment of 1920's caps. A rather stingy 8-panel in an unassuming brown tweed, it is a lovely shape but otherwise unremarkable.



Until you happen to view it from above. On first glance you notice the lack of a crown button. Then, looking further, you spy what looks like a stray grey piece of yarn stuck to it.



Then as it turns towards the rear, the mystery deepens, then is revealed.



An unmistakeable "8". Now it's clear: two of the eight panels were inadvertently sewn wrong-side out at the factory, revealing the numbers "7" and "8" threaded through the wool as number guides for those assembling them. Perhaps after sewing they noticed the mishap and so opted to leave the button off of this 'factory reject.'



That simple visual cue of human error in an increasingly mechanized world has turned this cap from an unremarkable one to an object of meaning and beauty for me. I'll wear it and think of the hands that buzzed around it 90 years ago, and the evidence of those hands that is graffiti-ed right onto it.

 

[The Wiser Hatter]

neat to get a factory reject from so long ago.

 

[Baron Kurtz]

A nice story, certainly, but wouldn't they have simply unpicked the numbers? Or rejected it long before putting in the sweatband, bill, label etc. Why would they have put in a liner without having put on the button?

I suspect rather than a reject, that this is just an unfinished hat.

I like the simplicity of it.

 

[Stuffsmith]

Quite possibly, Pete. But the result is the same! You've got a great point about the liner. Maybe this style didn't have a button at all? But the numbers are so cool. I'm happy with it unresolved!

 

[Baron Kurtz]

I think it probably was supposed to have a button. Even low end customers (or children in this case) wouldn't accept the lack of neatness at the top of the crown. Is there no evidence (impression in the fabric, for example) that there might at some point have been a button? No sign of the internals of the button rolling around inside the liner?

 

[Baron Kurtz]

Though the rest of the work is rough as guts so who knows?

 

[Stuffsmith]

No way, it's never had a button. Still had the tissue in it, been in a stockroom for ever. I have seen a vintage 8-panel cap once with no button that looked like it was on purpose, but this looks like it needed one.

 

[ManofKent]

Interesting piece Keith. It does seem odd that they added the liner, but I can't come up with a better guess as to why it has the numbers.

 

[dh66]

Nice little mystery you've got there Keith. I'm with you that it is probably an f-up. The sweat also appears poorly sewn in near the size tag, and I'll second BK in that it probably should have had a button. I've seen caps without one, but they were immaculately pieced together at the center, that one's a little wonky.
As to how it ended up with a liner, being a factory made cap it probably was put together production style, not sewn 100% by the same employee. When the liner installer ran across the pooched up outer in his stack of work.....

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

 

[Stuffsmith]

Too funny, Dale, and probably painfully close to the truth. I love my cap even more now: another set of hands involved in this little baby!

Thanks Ed and Richard!

 

[Sprinkles]

Anyone here win this one? It looked great and is huge!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Unused-Vint...XRh8b1051fzJLYybaeSyQ%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

 

[TheDane]

I think Richard (ManofKent) is in that circumference-league - and a cap-wearer. A really nice cap, but I would be afraid of being alone in it

 

[Johnny J]

Anyone here win this one? It looked great and is huge!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Unused-Vint...XRh8b1051fzJLYybaeSyQ%3D&orig_cvip=true&rt=nc

I grabbed that one. I'll post pics when it arrives.

 

[Sprinkles]

Nice!

 

[Johnny J]

I'm selling some of the vintage caps I have acquired in the classifieds, if anyone is interested.

Here are 2 that are still available. The others are sold:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?75587-Vintage-1920s-1930s-Caps-for-Sale

 

[Stuffsmith]

Great caps, Johnny!

Here's my first awkward attempt at a back-band cap. A very hard pattern to match, but I did what I could...

 

[Johnny J]

Great job Keith! You even taped the seams. Very nice!

 

[Stuffsmith]

Thanks, maestro!

 

[ManofKent]

I grabbed that one. I'll post pics when it arrives.

I look forward to seeing it. As Ole says, it's roundabout my size (my noggin is pretty much 60.5cm )