http://www.ebay.com/itm/281321523261
This vintage fedora hat was made in the 1950s by Wormser. It is made of Supreme Quality fur felt. The model name is The Rambler. The hat has a bound brim, a shallow C crown, and a pleated bow. The hat has a brown leather sweatband and a white liner with the Wormser crests.
Size: 7-1/2
Brim Width: 2-1/4″
Ribbon Width: 1″
Crown Height: 5-1/4″
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281305948803
This vintage hat was made in the 1950s by Peters Brothers Inc. of Fort Worth, Texas. It is “The Texas Hat” – the Shady Oaks Banker’s Special. Later models would change the name to the Shady Oak, dropping the s. These were the models famously presented to presidents, and worn by wealthy Texas oilmen. It retailed for $50 in the 1950s, an extremely expensive hat for the time, and the quality really shows. I would say it is comparable to Stetson’s 7X Clear Beaver felt of the period.
The beaver felt hoods used in these earlier models were made in Switzerland. I have read they used these imported felt bodies because mercury processing was still done in Switzerland at that time, which resulted in a higher quality felt.
Size: 7-3/8
Brim Width: 3″
Crown Height: 5-1/2″
http://www.ebay.com/itm/281305928450
This vintage brown derby was made during the derby revival of the late 1950s. It was sold by The English Shop / The Libertyville Saddle Shop of Libertyville, Illinois. It is made of brown fur felt. It has a fancy pleated liner with a generic gold stamp. Size 7-1/4
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271396655847
This fedora was made by Selentino / Tonak. It is in a rare pure white fur felt, with an underwelt brim and a center dent. It has never been worn, with the tags and stickers still attached. But deadstock does not mean damage free, as you can see by the tracking to the felt.
Size: 7-3/8
Brim Width: 2-1/4″
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271370313623
This vintage hat was made in Fort Worth Texas by Peters Bros. It is a “Shady Oak Banker’s Special”, and originally sold for seventy five dollars, making it more than three times as expensive as an average fur felt Stetson of the time. It is made from dress weight beaver felt. The hat is styled similarly to an earlier Stetson Playboy, with a raw brim with a stitched edge detail and a thin ribbon. At some time, the hat must have had some work done, as it has a liner from Fort Worth’s other noted hatter, Hatter’s Hats.
Size: 7
Brim Width: 2-1/2″
Crown Height: 5-3/8″
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271370292675
This vintage fedora was made by Dobbs for Wallach’s department store. It is a light rust colored fur felt with a long-nap finish. It has a raw edge brim and an olive green ribbon. It has a black leather sweatband, which has had the original markings redacted, and a replacement liner added with a generic crest. The liner is of a type more commonly seen in bowler hats, with a card backed liner tip. I’ve had several of these “redacted” hats over the years, I think they were unsold stock that was later re-marketed as a house brand by a different store.
Size: Tagged a 7-1/4 (although it measures out to a 7-1/8)
Brim Width: 2-3/4″
Ribbon Width: 1-3/8″
Crown Height: 5-5/8″
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271370326794
This hat was made by Akubra, probably in the 1980s. It is a wide brim slouch style, with a bound brim, grommets in the side of the crown, and a low teardrop crease. It is unlined, and has a narrow leather sweatband.
Size: 7-3/8
Brim Width: 3-5/8″
Crown Height: 5-3/4″
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271327357768
This vintage hat was custom made by Peters Brothers of Fort Worth, Texas. It is their famed “Shady Oak Banker’s Special” model, in the One Hundred grade, meaning that when it originally retailed for $100, at a time when the average fur felt hat in a comparable style was running about $20. The hat has a seamless welt edge. Cavanagh called their version the Cavanagh Edge. Stetson called theirs the Mode Edge. The hat has a narrow, western style single cord hat band.
Size: 7-5/8″
Brim Width: 2-3/4″
Crown Height: 5-1/2″
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271327386878
This vintage fedora was made in Philadelphia, PA in the mid 1940s by the John B. Stetson company. Interestingly, it was a rare export model, sold in Mexico. As such, it has variants on the early style reorder tags and on the size tag, with the sizes in metric. The hat has a raw edge brim and a self-felt hatband. It is made in a luxurious “suede finish” fur felt. The hat is creased with a teardrop crown. It has the early style detailed Stetson imprints on the sweatband and liner, transitional sweatband construction, and was sold by Salinas y Rocha, Alameda, Mexico
Size: 7
Brim Width: 2-3/4″
Crown Height: 5-1/4″
http://www.ebay.com/itm/271327402640
This vintage Stetson fedora was made in the mid 1940s. It is made of Stetson’s short lived “Plastic Felt”, a wool blend with a portion made of “Vinyon”. The hat originally sold for $5, and was marketed as being water resistant. The hat is made from four pieces of this miracle felt- the crown sides, the crown top, the brim, and the brim binding, all stitched together like a cloth hat. The hat is stitched for extra strength. It is light brown with an orange ribbon, one of the “Autumn Shades” mentioned in the original advertising. It has an unreeded brown leather sweatband, with the Stetson Plastic Felt logo.
Size: 7
Brim Width: 2-1/2″
Crown Height: 4-1/2″
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