I picked this up this week. Its an Open Road clone I think. I cleaned it up yesterday. Not bad but I am not sure of its age.
Thank Steve. They are a sort of curiosity because it is weird find the last "survivors" of a ancient and estimate hats production like the French without some little works to make them complete. The felts are fantastic, the shapes followed the fashion of that time. Fleur did the best to give them some new life The "Veritable feutre de poil" is my favourite too and the felt is quite fantastic.
I've got some work to do here. A load of hats came in this week from France, some good, some not so good. So let's start. First one is this nameless bowler. Importé d'Angleterre, so an English manufacture. We'll call it Angleterre from here on. Size 56 and a lovely lightweight and unlined bowler or chapeau melon as the French would say. Brim at 5cm and crown somwhere around 12 cm (always a bit tricky measuring bowlers). Weighs 90 grams and quite a bit of age to it by the looks of it. There is a label inside, but that isn't getting us anywhere. Some damage to the brim binding, but that is to be expected for hats of this age.
For the second one we'll stay in England. Woodrow Amylyte Burlington bowler in grey. The size is 58, but it runs smaller than that. Colour is called radium. Brim at just shy of 5cm and crown 12cm. Another very lightweight bowler hat at just 98 grams. Grey bowlers are difficult to come by, so a pity it's not my size.
The hat hauls are not always a complete triumph, but sometimes you have to go for it and take the plunge. This one was part of the plunge. Godet boater or canotier as the French would say. Size 55 or 54, so alas too small for me. Well made hat and a bon-ton ivy sweatband and very wide ribbon. It seems to have quite a bit of age to it as well. We can get a glimpse of the shop in the upper right corner of this picture from around 1905.
Let's continue with another one of the plunge that didn't quite meet the expectations. Pangaud chapeau melon, size 54. Woolfelt bowler with the brim at 5cm and the crown at about 11,5cm. Well made hat. Not as refined as its furfelt counterparts, but what would be a very serviable hat.
Mallory XV The Dallas. It’s post-Stetson buyout, but it’s wonderfully light felt. The darker photos show the colors more accurately...kind of a buckskin. Sadly, it’s off to eBay. If anyone here is interested shot me a PM.
Bailey isn’t a brand that gets a lot of love around here, but there’s nothing wrong with that hat. Is the felt firm/stiff, or is it more supple?
Now, where did I leave off yesterday? I think just before this one. Delion Castor Hudson in midnite blue. Size 56 with the brim at 5,5cm and the crown at 11cm at the center dent. Remarkable hat this one as it sits somewhere between a lords hat and a camber style hat. The raw edge brim isn't just curled, but it has a tiny lip right at the edge which at first had me thinking it was welted or felted, but it isn't. Castor Hudson is the name Mossant used for their beaver felt hats and the logo on the sweatband is exactly the same, so they were probably the maker. Apart from some odd staining on the liner it's in excellent condition. This one's a keeper. Delion was a very fancy hatter in the Passage Jouffroy in Paris. Here's a picture of the interior of the Delion shop.