Bowler hats dating them

Whether on a Stetson tag or on that of another hat maker, some of the information on these tags were crown depth, hat size, blocking number, finish style, sometimes even color appeared on them (but not often).

And, of course, the name of the hat company and sometimes its address were also on these tags. On Stetsons there were two of these stickers glued to the felt behind the sweatband, at the back of the hat. Follow the arrow and look behind the sweatband for the tags What do they look like?

A Tour of My Collection of Antique Stetson Western Hats This fascinating page has detailed photos of Stetson cowboy hat collection. This is an interesting walk through my personal collection of antique fedoras. And now on with Dating Stetson Hats By Inventory Tag…

These hats were made from the late 1800s, through the 1900s. Collectors have the most information on Stetsons but even that is hard to pin down.

Now, one way to date your Stetson hat is by re-order (“To Duplicate”) and inventory tags.

Dating Stetsons by inventory, style and sizing, or re-order number tags might only give you a general set of dates of not more than a decade or two, but taking note of these inventory tags can give you a general idea of the era in which your hat was made.

But on these pages you’ll find much of what you need to know and resources to look elsewhere for other great info, too.

A Glossary of Hat Terms, Words, Definitions, And Styles All the hat terms you need to know to understand the world of hats and hat wearing.

Sometimes there is an original receipt from when the hat was purchased.

This is also rare and maybe a bit unreliable because, after all, the receipt could have come from any where and it’s hard to be sure it was actually for the hat it is with.

The following is what collectors know so far about dating a Stetson.

This information is always changing as collectors are finding out more and more and newer vintage examples come to light.

As with all dating systems for Stetsons, exact, to the year dating is nearly impossible simply because Stetson’s records have long since been destroyed.