1940s German leather jacket

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281549205399
This vintage leather jacket was made in Germany the late 1940s – early 1950s. The label is worn but looks like it reads Rostra . It is double breasted, with scalloped yokes front and back, loop closures for the leather buttons, belted cuffs, scalloped handwarmer pocket flaps and a zipper pocket on the chest. The pocket has a Zipp Zipper, marked DRP Nurnberg on the back The jacket has a removable wool plaid lining, which is removable by means of PRYM snaps.

Chest (pit to pit): 22″ (doubled = 44″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 19″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 25″
Length (Base of collar to hem): 31″

1930s leather police motorcycle jacket

Posted on December 21, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271715598736
This vintage leather jacket was made in the late 1930 for a police motorcycle force. It is made of heavy black leather in an early motorcycle style. The jacket has a double-breasted, zip front cut, with snap belt buckles for a heavy garrison belt. It has lace-up sides, button cuffs with internal knit cuffs and zippered handwarmer/cargo pockets. The jacket is lined with wool and has an inside zip pocket. The main zipper is a later replacement, probably from the 1960s or 1970s. It appears that at that time a nylon liner was added overtop the original 1930s wool lining, but all that remains are a few shreds by the shoulder. The jacket has been heavily worn, implying a life after its original police usage. There are snaps for a mouton collar, as well as snaps on the belt loops. Some of these are 1920s United States Fastener snaps, others are United Carr made in the 1930s after United States Fastener and Carr merged. There are even RF Co snaps thrown into the mix. The pockets have late 1930s bell-shaped Talon zippers, while the interior pocket has an extremely rare version of the chain zipper with a Talon marked ring.

Chest (pit to pit): 22″ (doubled = 44″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 17″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 24″
Length (base of collar to hem): 22-1/4″

1950s horsehide bomber jacket

Posted on August 30, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281424905333
This vintage leather jacket was made in the early to mid 1950s. The pattern is nearly identical to what was being produced by Albert Richard at this time, but it uses Conmar hardware as opposed to the Talons usually used by that company. The jacket has a sheepskin collar, handwarmer pockets and a zip chest pocket. The back is one piece.

Chest (pit to pit): 22″
Shoulder to shoulder: 18-1/2″
Sleeve (shoulder to end of cuff): 24-1/2″
Length (base of collar to end of knit): 23-1/2″

1930s Montgomery Ward Pony Horsehide aviator cossack jacket

Posted on August 10, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281409286745
This vintage leather jacket was made in the late 1930s-early 1940s. It was made in California and was sold by Montgomery Ward under their Sportswear label. The “Aviator” style, a precursor to the modern motorcycle jacket, was popular in this late ’30s-1940s time period, and this is an excellent example. It has an asymmetrical / double breasted zipper design, with handwarmer pockets and double zipped breast pockets. The zippers are all Talons. The chest zippers are the originals, with ring style pulls and Talon branded sliders, a style which stopped production in the 1940s. The main zipper is a replacement, probably done in the late 1950s. Interestingly, the slider has had the pull replaced with a 1930s fan-tail pull, possibly off the original zip. The jacket has a half-belt back with teardrop shaped buckles. The jacket is fully lined, with a wonderful label with a California mission and palm tree. The jacket is made of pony horsehide.

Chest (pit to pit): 20″ (doubled = 40″)
Waist (side to side): 18″ (doubled = 36″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 17″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 23-3/4″
Length (base of collar to hem): 21″

1930s – 1940s Hercules shawl collared leather coat

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271547750220
This vintage coat was made for Sears in the 1940s and was sold under their Hercules workwear label. The coat is made of black front quarter horsehide with a brown mouton collar. It is double breasted, with a shawl collar, handwarmer pockets and flapped cargo pockets, square yokes front and back and buttoned adjuster belts on the cuffs. The coat has a quilted cotton lining, lighter in weight than the typical sheepskin lining found in this style coat. Sleeve linings are purple, and have knitted cuffs to keep the wind out. The Hercules label is of the style used in the 1940s, however the last time I can find this model in any Sears catalog is in the Fall 1940 edition. This style of double breasted, shawl collared, hip length leather coat was popular in the 1920s and 1930s and changed very little through its production run. By WWII, this style coat would have been considered old fashioned and was replaced by zip-front sheeplined surcoat style jackets.

Chest (pit to pit): 24″ (doubled = 48″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 20″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 25-3/4″
Length (base of collar to hem): 33″

Late 1940s half-belt leather jacket

Posted on July 13, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281379413806
This vintage leather jacket was made in the late 1940s- early 1950s. It is a surcoat length half-belt design with flapped cargo/side entry handwarmer pockets. The sleeves have scaloped cuffs with fancy buttons. The zippers are all Talon. The lining is shredded.

Chest (pit to pit): 22″ (doubled = 44″)
shoulder to shoulder: 19″
sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 25″
Length (base of collar to hem): 28″

1940s Front Quarter horsehide jacket

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281349331760
This vintage leather jacket was made in the 1940s. The style, with knit waistband and cuffs, and slash handwarmer pockets was popular after the war. It is made of full grain front quarter horsehide, with a mouton collar. The jacket is lined in alpaca and corduroy, with quilted sleeve linings. The zipper is a later replacement from a no-name maker, with non-matching stitching. The cuffs and knit waistband also appear to be replacements. The jacket has a one piece back with a straight shoulder yoke. The horsehide has wonderful grain accented by decades of use. I have seen this particular design of yellow and black horsehide label, and this style of lining on earlier button front barnstormer models, but not on a post-war bomber jacket style like this. The leather has wear and loss of finish, but is still solid and supple.

Chest (pit to pit): 24″ (doubled = 48″)
Shoulder to shoulder: 19″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 24-1/2″
Length (base of collar to end of cuff): 23″

Vintage 1950s Buco J-82 D-pocket leather jacket

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281345326835
This vintage leather jacket was made by the Joseph Buegeleisen Company of Detroit Michigan, in the mid-late 1950s. The J-82 model was introduced by Buco c. 1955, and going by the style of Talon zippers on this example, it dates from this 1950s time frame. Although this jacket was cut down into a vest by its original biker owner, the detailing of the J-82 model is highly distinctive and makes it immediately recognizable. The jacket is made of heavy steerhide leather, with a D-pocket (also known as a pistol pocket or a map pocket). Whereas many other D-pocket models had a patch cigarette pocket overtop the map pocket, the J-82 had a cleaner design, leaving that pocket uncluttered. There is a zipper breast pocket, somewhat of a holdover from aviator jacket styles of the 1940s, and a zippered slash handwarmer style pocket. The jacket has an attached belt, with a blacked out metal buckle and a metal tipped belt end to make threading it through easier. The belt loops and all pockets are reinforced and embellished with nickel plated rectangular high-dome studwork. The lapels snap down and there are additional snaps that a mouton collar could have originally been attached to. The jacket has a bi-swing back. The main zipper is a no.5 Talon of 1950s design, and all pocket zippers are bell-shaped Talons.
Wear this jacket over a denim jacket or like Lee Marvin in The Wild One over a striped shirt.

Chest (pit to pit): 19″
Length (base of collar to hem): 23″
Waist: 17″

Original Perry A-2 horsehide flight jacket

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271501781667
This vintage leather flight jacket was made by the Perry Sportswear company of Newburgh, New York. It is made of horsehide leather. The jacket has a pinlock Conmar zipper, United Carr ball-style snaps and grommets under the arms. The pockets have square reinforcement stitching, rounded corners, and shallowly scalloped pocket flaps. The arm has some period artwork on it for the 5th Air Corps. Unlike most, which were painted, this one is branded onto the leather.

Chest (pit to pit): 41″
Shoulder to shoulder: 17-1/2″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 20-1/2″ (missing knit cuffs, so will be longer once replaced)
Length (base of collar to end of waistband): 23-1/2″

Monarch horsehide barnstormer leather jacket

Posted on May 16, 2014 by Spencer Stewart

http://www.ebay.com/itm/271493775559
This vintage jacket was made by Monarch Mfg. of Milwaukee WI in the late 1930s or early 1940s. It is a belted, double breasted style. This has since come to be known among collectors as a barnstormer style, named after the aviators of the 1920s who wore similar styles. The jacket is made of russet horsehide, with a 3×6 double breasted front. There are handwarmer pockets (known originally as “muff” pockets), as well as flapped cargo pockets. These have deeply scalloped pocket flaps. The jacket is lined with blanket wool in the body, with quilted shoulders and sleeves. The U shaped seam between the two lining materials is a detail I have only seen on other Monarch jackets. The label is of a style used in the 1930s through about the end of WWII. The leather has some really incredible grain, highlighted by decades of usage. The treatment of the seams is unusual. Whereas most jackets, leather or otherwise, will have a seam at the edge of the jacket, or on the edge of the lapels, this one minimizes them by folding the leather around to form the front and back panel.

The Monarch Manufacturing Company was founded in 1892 by Paul Asch. In 1917, they relocated to a new factory, located at 246 East Chicago St., Milwaukee, WI. They built at least four more factories in Milwaukee, employing over a thousand workers by 1922. Throughout the life of the company, they specialized in leather, sheepskin and fabric outerwear for men and boys. They produced A-2 contracts during WWII.

Chest (pit to pit): 23″
Shoulder to shoulder: 18″
Sleeve (shoulder to cuff): 26-1/2″
Length (collar seam to hem): 30″

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