DominusTecum
Familiar Face
- Messages
- 78
- Location
- Kansas, USA
Hello all,
The other day I was poking around in an antique shop and discovered an old straw boater/strat/kreissage hat hidden inside a hatbox on the third floor(which was buried under 20 others -I am very patient when on the hunt.) I put it on and lo and behold, it fit. There was another similar hat with it, but that one didn't fit and was in terrible shape, so I left it for somebody to use as room decor.
Anyway, I know virtually nothing about old straw hats, and was wondering what you all thought of it. Overall, it seems to be in decent condition, given that it's probably at least 70 years old. The leather sweatband is tattered at the back of the hat, and there's a shallow "bite" out of the brim edge in one spot, which, to my eye, could either have been caused by some hungry creature or an accident. Also, the hat is very dirty, as I tried to show in the last picture. A (very) soft brush did virtually nothing to help, so I got a wet washcloth, which promptly became a black, wet washcloth, in the places where I was rubbing. I abandoned this though, because I wasn't sure of the wisdom of rubbing semi-vigorously with water over old and presumably more brittle straw. Here are some pictures:
The other day I was poking around in an antique shop and discovered an old straw boater/strat/kreissage hat hidden inside a hatbox on the third floor(which was buried under 20 others -I am very patient when on the hunt.) I put it on and lo and behold, it fit. There was another similar hat with it, but that one didn't fit and was in terrible shape, so I left it for somebody to use as room decor.
Anyway, I know virtually nothing about old straw hats, and was wondering what you all thought of it. Overall, it seems to be in decent condition, given that it's probably at least 70 years old. The leather sweatband is tattered at the back of the hat, and there's a shallow "bite" out of the brim edge in one spot, which, to my eye, could either have been caused by some hungry creature or an accident. Also, the hat is very dirty, as I tried to show in the last picture. A (very) soft brush did virtually nothing to help, so I got a wet washcloth, which promptly became a black, wet washcloth, in the places where I was rubbing. I abandoned this though, because I wasn't sure of the wisdom of rubbing semi-vigorously with water over old and presumably more brittle straw. Here are some pictures:
