The Black Hat Brigade

[billysmom]

Dinerman -

How appropriate for All Souls' Day!

Sue

 

[Splitcoil]

Stetson Chatham, chopped, bound, and re-ribboned. And no, I wasn't trying to look grim in the photo. I was at the doctor's office and was in a bit of pain!

 

[Mario]

Late 20's/early 30's fedora from Austrian hatter Otto Matt, Bregenz (Lake Contance).

 

[SteveAS]

Here is one of my favorite hats: a Dobbs, likely from the 1940s . . .

 

[Mario]

Here is one of my favorite hats: a Dobbs, likely from the 1940s . . .

With the black sweat and the liner it's more likely from the mid/late 60's. Let the experts have a word here.

Still: looks like a very nice hat! :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

 

[Dinerman]

Mid '30s, I'd say.

 

[Mario]

Mid '30s, I'd say.

The Dobbs? I'd be stunned! [huh]

 

[Dinerman]

With that liner and that black sweatband, I can't see it being anywhere past the early '40s.

Black sweatbands are more commonly associated with the '60s, but in that time period they were narrow and generally textured. That dobbs has an unreeded wide sweatband with the widely spaced, deeply embossed top edge associated with pre '40s hats. You generally don't see the blind embossed logo beyond that point either. The liner with the store name printed on it also says '30s to me.

 

[Mario]

Well, I'll take you word for it!

 

[Mario]

Black sweatbands are more commonly associated with the '60s, but in that time period they were narrow and generally textured. That dobbs has an unreeded wide sweatband with the widely spaced, deeply embossed top edge associated with pre '40s hats. You generally don't see the blind embossed logo beyond that point either. The liner with the store name printed on it also says '30s to me.

I've definitely never before seen a Dobbs or any other US-made hat from that time period with a black sweat. I guess there is a first time for everything. The one thing that really made me wonder about the age is the fact that the sweatband is unreeded.

 

[Joshbru3]

Here's my Very Stingy 1960's Dunlap. I call this one my "mini whippet" but now that Ive started getting into larger brims, I really never wear this one anymore.

 

[Matt Deckard]

 

[Brad Bowers]

With that liner and that black sweatband, I can't see it being anywhere past the early '40s.

Black sweatbands are more commonly associated with the '60s, but in that time period they were narrow and generally textured. That dobbs has an unreeded wide sweatband with the widely spaced, deeply embossed top edge associated with pre '40s hats. You generally don't see the blind embossed logo beyond that point either. The liner with the store name printed on it also says '30s to me.

Hate to disagree with you, D-man, as I have nothing but the utmost respect for you!

However...The blind embossed logo lasted throughout the '40s. By the early '50s it was stamped in gold, and was replaced by the gold coach logo around '54.

The tags inside Steve's hat were in use by Hat Corporation of America during the '40s.

At least until the late-'30s, Dobbs used their older-style tags, as seen here:

They changed to the more modern tag in the '50s sometime, but I realized I don't have a photo of one, even though I've got many hats with them!

The sweatband seam is stitched, and by the late'-30 they were still taped.

That particular liner appears to have been used only on hats branded for the stores, an economical way to create a customized liner in small quantities.

Brad

 

[Dinerman]

I stand corrected. As the dobbs expert, I certainly believe you on it.

The sweatband top embossing is really what threw me.

 

[SteveAS]

With the black sweat and the liner it's more likely from the mid/late 60's. Let the experts have a word here.

Still: looks like a very nice hat! :eusa_clap :eusa_clap

Thanks for the compliment.

Actually, I should have given credit in the first place, but Brad Bowers estimated its age as 1940s previously. That was my main basis for thinking it was from the 1940s.

 

[danofarlington]

I like that hat look. You pulled it off.

 

[Mario]

Now that's what I like about this place. I really learn somethin new all the time (now if I could only remember...). I've read about the pre-60's use of black sweatbands but have never before seen one in person. I've come across a few gray sweats in older (20's and 30's) hats, but never any blacks. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[AlterEgo]

My Akubra Sydney (AKA "Fedora") is technically charcoal in color, but I think that's close enough to true black to qualify.

Though most here are familiar with this hat, here's a pic and description: http://www.davidmorgan.com/product_info.php?products_id=92.

Though I now wear this lid the least of my fur felt fedoras, it was the hat that re-started my lifelong love affair with them, and the one that turned me on to Fedora Lounge.

And that's a good thing.

 

[Lloyd]

here's my entry, a new Work of Art that arrived a couple of weeks ago, this hat gets more compliments than anything else I own.

The 3 arrows on the ribbon seem especially popular, and here's the old Biltmore that inspired the riibon

 

[James71]

The black ones..

Akubra Bogart 2010

Akubra Arena (well worn) c1990