Toppers Unite

[Charlie Huang]

Here is a fun one, I picked up this item from an auction ..... Try and guess what it is / was used for:

2nd pic shows small light bulbs inside the ring.

A hat warmer.

 

[alanfgag]

Here is my private label top hat for B.Altman... no idea as to the vintage, it is in quite nice condition.

 

[RBH]

WOW Alan!
You do wear all hats well!

 

[alanfgag]

Thanks, Rusty... but I think I have to lose the t-shirt with this one.

 

[Charlie Huang]

Very nice! That is in very good condition as well.

 

[dhermann1]

B. Altman's was a wonderful old classic department store here in New York, that went out of business in 1989. The store was at 34th St and 5th Ave. Ironically, it is now the City University of New York Graduate Center, and that's where my weekly paycheck comes from. B. Altman's is STILL much lamented.

 

[alanfgag]

B. Altman's was a wonderful old classic department store here in New York, that went out of business in 1989. The store was at 34th St and 5th Ave. Ironically, it is now the City University of New York Graduate Center, and that's where my weekly paycheck comes from. B. Altman's is STILL much lamented.

Thanks for your note. The Altman's provenance was one of the reasons I chose this hat... grew up in NYC and my mom was a buyer at a store on the same block - Ohrbach's, which left the planet a number of years before Altman's. When I got started in the stationery industry, Altman's was my first sales destination. They had a fine stationery department too.

 

[mayserwegener]

Alan, Super Topper! BTW I have a very old P. & C. Habig Derby that is stamped B. Altman & Company Fifth Avenue.

 

[EggHead]

Here is my private label top hat for B.Altman... no idea as to the vintage, it is in quite nice condition.

You're smoking!

 

[alanfgag]

Thanks very much guys. I'd been looking for a top hat for some time, bidding gingerly but backing away as the price shot up in the end of the auction.

I would love to hear your comments on possible vintage. My thought was 1940s or perhaps 30s... but it's nothing other than an uneducated guess.

 

[Charlie Huang]

Look under the sweatband and see if there are any dates.

Going by the brim and the style, it might be around the 50s I'd guess.

 

[alanfgag]

Hi Charlie,

Thanks for your note. I didn't find any markings under the sweatband on this hat. The typeface and logo on the liner dates back to the 1920s. Not sure when Altman's moved to their more familiar script lettering, but there was a different logo being used in their print advertising by the mid 1940s. I'm thinking this hat is earlier than that, but of course that is only a guess.

 

[Topper]

A hat warmer.

Yes!

I though my last clue that the responses were getting"warmer" in their answers had fallen on deaf ears

 

[Charlie Huang]

My new blog post at my attempt at sweatband replacement:

http://charlesrupertdomeki.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/top-hat-renovation-sweatband-replacement/

 

[mayserwegener]

Wow! Fantastic job!

 

[dhermann1]

So would you now recommend Patey to do a restoration of a very similar topper of about the same age? The sweat band is totally shot, and the top edge of the silk all around the crown is worn threadbare. If not Patey, who else would you suggest?

 

[Charlie Huang]

I would enquire with Ascot Top Hats (with photos).

Patey I would go to solely for reblocking and/or polishing.

 

[Charlie Huang]

Just discovered that Nick Knowles is a top hat obsessive like myself:

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/231513/DIY-SOS-star-Nick-Knowles-on-his-love-of-top-hats

Dear Lord, if we ever do meet in life we would talk for HOURS!

 

[Aureliano]

Found this beautiful Knox at an antique shop. Great condition, the sweatband is not the original as it doesn't have any Knox reference: whoever was the owner of this hat (initials STM) took good care of it. The store owner said it dates from the late 1800 to early 1900, could anyone verify that? Also I suspect it's silk, any way to tell for sure?

 

[Aureliano]

Bump for info about date and whether sweat is original to hat. Thanks