Stetson Stuff

[alanfgag]

Whow!

That's great!

 

[carouselvic]

 

[carouselvic]

The american hatter directory...spring 1925

I've seen these codes used on factory documents and have always wondered what they meant.

 

[Joao Encarnado]

The Hat Trade Publishiung Co?
The American Hatter Code?

 

[viclip]

I've seen these codes used on factory documents and have always wondered what they meant.

Great post. This graphically portrays why vintage 7-5/8 hats are so hard to come by, only being available in the "Hog" & "Horse" assortments.

 

[alanfgag]

Fascinating. We can't really compare hogs to monkeys without knowing the popularity of each assortment. But if they were ordered equally, the distribution of sizes would like like the chart below. Though early 7 5/8 hats seem rare, I think we see more of them than size 6 and 6 1/8.

 

[carouselvic]

sizes below 6 1/2 were generally considered children's sizes

 

[viclip]

Fascinating. We can't really compare hogs to monkeys without knowing the popularity of each assortment. But if they were ordered equally, the distribution of sizes would like like the chart below. Though early 7 5/8 hats seem rare, I think we see more of them than size 6 and 6 1/8.

Thx Alan for posting this graphical analysis. It strongly suggests that size 7 was the most common hat size back in the 1920s. A current thread suggests that today's most common hat size is 7-3/8:

http://www.thefedoralounge.com/showthread.php?76578-most-common-hat-size

Thus in the space of 3 generations our noggins on average have gone up about 3 sizes.

 

[alanfgag]

Actually, I think the analysis shows that size 7 is included in more distributions than any other size. But without knowing which distributions were ordered most frequently, we can't really interpolate much more. If the elephant or hog were predominant, the breakdown of sizes would be closer to what we see today.

 

[Landman]

That is a very interesting chart. So many children's sizes is intriguing to me. I guess we don't see too many of those children's hats today because the kids back then wore them out.

 

[Lotsahats]

In its prime years, hat makers out out how many millions of hats a year? And how many arcane charts like this do we have access to? I think it's pretty clear that we remain in the realm of anecdote and speculation about hat sizes.

A

 

[fedoracentric]

It seems to me it is pretty safe to assume that size 7 was most popular even without knowing which ordering code was most ordered. Otherwise there would have been no logical reason to include the size in so many of the ordering codes.

It also makes sense because we see a ton of 6-78, 7, and 7-1/8 vintage hats still for sale. There were more of them then there's more of them left today.

Finally, we are all bigger and healthier than our ancestors from the 1900 thru 1950. The big reason for that is access to food and clean water. Our average lifespan has lengthened since the 1950s, too.

So, I think it is quite safe to assume that 7 was the average hat size in the first half of the last century.

 

[Joshbru3]

I received this last week. VERY interesting stuff on this one......it lists the Stetson Mercury! The early soft hat that is pretty much identical to an Open Road/Strat. It lists the brim width at 2 5/8 and a block number of 729. According to my research, Block 729 was offered in crown heights of 5 1/2 and 5 5/8 inches tall. Meaning, this hat mostly resembled a Strat with a flatter open road-like flange. It was also offered in Excellent Quality....not just Standard. SO MUCH info from one invoice. That's why these old stetson invoices are worth every penny spent on them because they truly are a wealth of knowledge.

 

[splintercellsz]

Awesome, Josh, thank you for sharing that one!

 

[Joshbru3]

Awesome, Josh, thank you for sharing that one!

No problem, Justin

 

[buler]

Bill from June, 1900. Lists Dark Blue Nutria, O Side, and B Belly. Graeco and South models.

B

 

[hatophile]

Neat stuff guys. I like those Mercurys, someone posted a pic of one a few years ago.

 

[carouselvic]

 

[carouselvic]

 

[carouselvic]