Vintage Portis Fedora Hat 7 1/2 for Hale Stetson Whippet Style Bound Brim For Sale

Up for offers we have a fantastic vintage \"private label\" fur felt fedora made for the California-based Hale Bros. department store chain (also known at various points in its long history as \"Hale\" and \"Broadway-Hale\"). Tags, stamps, and trimmings indicate an early-to-mid 1950s production date.It isn\'t difficult to determine who made this fine fur felt lid for Hale: the trademarked \"Swan\'s Down Finish\" slogan printed in the crown tip identifies this hat as a product of the Portis Bros. Hat Company. The sweatband fitment & size tag also match up with my own Portis lids from this period. Portis Hats may not be a household name today, butfor much of the 20th century, Portis was one of America\'s most well-regardedhat manufacturers. Portis fedoras were celebrated for their wide varietyof unusual felt colors, their innovative ribbon treatments, and--of course--that wonderfully soft `n smooth\"Swan\'s Down Finish\" mentioned in this hat\'s liner tip.The exquisite Swan\'s Down Finish on this lid definitely lives up to its name, but for my money, the highlight of this Hale hat from Portis is the grosgrain trim on the brim & crown. Like the perennially popular \"Whippet\" model from Stetson, this Portis sports a distinctive 3/8\" wide grosgrain brim binding, which lends the hat\'s profile a bit of dressy flash. Yet whereas the Whippet & other hats of that ilk generally paired that wide brim binding with a fairly wide & formal-looking ribbon treatment around the crown, Portis liked to zig when the other guys zagged: the grosgrain ribbon adorning the crown is only 7/8\" wide. This \"middle-width\" ribbon treatment---most famously employed on Stetson\'s beloved \"Playboy\" model---adds a dash of casual flair to the hat\'s overall look. As the pics above suggest, this combination of dressy pizazz & casual nonchalance is a real winner; this hat\'s profile is as sharp as the proverbial tack. If you\'re one of those dedicated hat-wearers who often finds himself in a quandary when you try to decide whether to grab the Stetson Whippet or the Stetson Playboy from the hat rack, this Portis may be the perfect lid for you: it offers \"best of both worlds\" styling, so to speak. Moreover, this lid is in excellent shape and it\'s rendered in a nice light color that makes it perfect for spring. Best of all, this magnificent Portis is blocked in a hard-to-find larger size! If you\'ve been hunting for a vintage lid with a unique look, this Portis will be hard to beat! Read on for all the pertinent specs & condition details:Size & Dimensions: Tagged size 7 1/2. I measure the internal circumference (hard to do with absolute accuracy) as around 23 1/4\" or so. This hat just wobbles around on my size 7 1/4 noggin, so I thought I would pass it on to someone with a somewhat more prodigious cranium than my own.Brim measures 2 1/4\" wide; it\'s finished with the aforementioned 3/8\" wide grosgrain binding, just like Stetson\'s Whippet. Crown as creased measures 4 3/4\" tall at highest point (open crown measurement is 5 1/2\"). Grosgrain ribbon adorning the crown is 7/8\" wide. Brown leather sweatband is 1 3/4\" wide.Condition: Excellent. The trademarked Portis \"Swan\'s Down Finish\" definitely lives up to its evocative name. The fur felt has a truly excellent texture---or \"hand.\" The felt is soft, smooth, andluxurious to the touch. The crown & brim are quite supple &pliable; they can be shaped into your favorite fedora creases &configurations with ease. Although the feltis quite soft, it also somehow feels dense & substantial at the sametime. That\'s a sure-fire sign of premium-quality vintage felt. Thisevident density indicates that the time, effort, and expense was taken toensure the felt\'s fur fibers were closely interlaced---or \"denselyfelted.\" The extensive rendering & finishing process required tocreate a felt hat body like this one produced hats that were both soft &durable; felt like this retains its shape & texture after exposure to wearand the elements in a way no modern hat can equal. Today\'s economies ofscale would make producing hat bodies like this prohibitively expensive formodern hat companies. In short: they don\'t make `em like thisanymore, fellas.The felt itself is nice & clean: I can\'t find any significant signs of wear or handling. I apologize for the unfortunate interplay of sunlight & shadow in some of the photos: in a couple of the shots, the lighting makes portions of the felt and/or ribbon look darker than it actually is. That isn\'t the case in person: there are no stains, blemishes, or discolored areas. No indication of insect activity. I\'m sure the original owner of this Portis wore his hat a little bit, but it appears he treated it with great care.