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Royal Stetson Playboy

LordBest

Practically Family
Messages
692
Location
Australia
I picked this up at a local thrift store today, a 7 1/8 Stetson Playboy, in a rather nice shade of green described as Miami Green on the slip in the hat.
Playboyfront.jpg

Playboyside.jpg

Playboytop.jpg

Playboysweatband.jpg

Playboyliner.jpg

Playboyedge.jpg

I can not get a decent picture of most of the inside detail so I will transcribe it below
Sweatband has on it Playboy, the pictured coat of arms with "John B Stetson Company U.S.A. Made in Australia Under License" It has a size tag reading 1/8 and a shop sticker reading "78 / 05B 631 / IS/N 79/6" (date?) with a shop name I can not make out, and a Stetson card attached to inside of the sweatband which reads "Stetson / Qual Royal / Style Play Boy / Colour Miami Grn / Size 7 1/8 / Pure Fur Felt".
If anyone can suggest a liekly date I would be most grateful, I realise it must be post 1951 as that is when Akubra began producing Stetson hats in Australia (unless they had a different hatter doing it prior to that?). It is a very handsome hat with a rather dapper stitched brim edge.
 

carouselvic

I'll Lock Up
Messages
4,926
Location
Kansas
That's a different creature than an old American Stetson Playboy. Yours has a sewn over welt. I have not seen enough Australian Stetsons to feel comfortable offering a date.
 

LordBest

Practically Family
Messages
692
Location
Australia
I did notice the over welt, interesting that there should be such a difference in a licensed hat vs the original. Apart from that it seems to have a similar ribbon treatment, shape and proportion to the original, to my admittedly inexperienced eye.
 
The old Playboy had a Bermuda Green style that they marketed.
Regarding this tag, what does it look like? Stetsons fromt he 1970s on had computer generated tags behind the sweatband so you could easily date them that way. Previously they had typed tags that had a lot less information than what yours does. Perhaps the 79 is the date of 1979.
Better looking than a lot we could have gotten in the US back then. ;) Akubra must have been doing a decent business back then just as today. :D
 

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