Vintage Stetson Fedora Hat 7 1/8 LO Open Road Style Silverbelly Fur Felt For Sale

Here we have a terrific vintage Stetson fedorarendered in the iconic \"Open Road\" style. If you\'re fond ofvintage hats, Stetson\'s Open Road model needs no introduction; the OR was oneof Stetson\'s best selling models for many years during that long-ago \"goldenage\" of 20th century mens\' style. The Open Road\'s elegant boundbrim, casual-looking thin ribbon, soft construction, and appealing proportionsmade it an ideal \"town & country\" hat---a fedora that looksappropriate in just about any sartorial situation.The Open Road\'s versatility made it equally popularamong urban dwellers & rural folks alike. During the OR\'s heydaythrough much of the 40s, 50s, and 60s, Stetson also produced quite a few lidsfeaturing Open Road styling that lacked the telltale \"Open Road\"stamp on the sweatband. These hats were often distributed to the largertack outfitters & other retail operations out west. Thoseretailers often requested hats without the model stamp on them; since theseoperations typically placed sizable orders for both western-weight hats anddress hats styled with a bit of casual western flair (like the OR), Stetson washappy to comply. These retailers out west knew their clients would likethe Open Road\'s attractive styling, but they also fretted that those more hard-bitten westerners might shy away from a dress hat with a grand-sounding name like\"The Open Road.\" Instead, these western retailers would eithercome up with their own more rugged-sounding model names for their catalogs, orjust let the hat\'s style speak for itself and dispense with fancy monikersaltogether.That\'s the case with the Royal Stetson presently up foroffers: it was originally purchased at Stripling\'s in Forth Worth--a long-time retail institution in the heart of the American west. This lid may lack an OR stamp, but it\'s clearly an Open Road in all but name. Most importantly, this hat is a Stetson through-and-through---you\'ll know that the moment you lay a finger on the brim. Tags, stamps, and trimmings indicate an early 1960s production date. This hat is well over 50 years old, yet it\'s in splendid shape.If you\'ve been looking for a classic thin-ribbonfedora, you\'ll want to give this lid a close look. Read on for all thepertinent specs & condition details:Size & Dimensions: Tagged size 7 1/8 long oval. I measure the internal circumference (hard to do with absolute accuracy) as about 22 3/8\" or so. I wear a size 7 1/4 standard oval myself and I find this hat is just a little too snug for me to wear comfortably, so I guess I\'ll have to pass it on to someone with a cranium that\'s slightly smaller than my own.Brim measures 2 5/8\" wide; it\'s finished with a narrow grosgrain binding in classic OR fashion. Crown as creased is 4 3/4\" tall at highest point (crown is 5 1/2\" tall open). Grosgrain ribbon adorning the crown is 3/8\" wide. Condition: The felt & finish quality are pretty extraordinary. I must admit I found this a pleasant surprise: I\'ve handled lots of early 60s Royal Quality Stetsons and while they have all been nice hats, I usually find they don\'t measure up to the Royal Stetson line of the previous decade in terms of felt & finish. This hat is a notable exception; its texture & density compare quite favorably to my Royal Quality Open Roads made more than 10 years earlier! Perhaps a group of dedicated old-timers at Stetson happened to be on the clock the day this hat body came down the finishing line. Or maybe Stripling\'s buyers insisted their orders be filled with the best available hats---the chain was a pretty big account back then, after all. Whatever the reason, this Royal Stetson features a level of superlative construction quality normally seen only in more expensive hats during that era: the felt is soft, smooth, and luxurious tothe touch. The crown & brim are quite supple & pliable; they canbe shaped into your favorite fedora creases & configurations withease. Although the felt is quite soft, italso somehow feels dense & substantial at the same time. That\'s asure-fire sign of premium-quality vintage felt. This evident densityindicates the time, effort, and expense was taken to ensure the felt\'s furfibers were closely interlaced---or \"densely felted.\" Theextensive rendering & finishing process required to create a felt hat bodylike this one produced hats that were both soft & durable; felt like thisretains its shape & texture after exposure to wear and the elements in a wayno modern hat can equal. Today\'s economies of scale would make producinghat bodies like this prohibitively expensive for modern hat companies. Inshort: they don\'t make `em like this anymore, fellas.The felt looks pretty clean, overall---it doesn\'t appear this hat saw much in the way of wear. No stains or blemishes. I did find a couple of extremely tiny moth nips on the top & back of the crown, but these are so small & shallow as to be utterly negligible---they certainly won\'t be visible when you\'re wearing the hat. As a matter of fact, you\'ll have a hard time spotting them even when you\'re looking for them---I didn\'t notice them myself until I gave the felt a close look-see with one of those bright LED flashlights. Nevertheless, in the interests of full disclosure, I took a couple of extreme close-ups so you could judge for yourself (pics # 6 & 7). These little nips are pretty miniscule, which makes them difficult to capture in a photo, but I did my level best. There\'s also a little bit of shallow moth tracking underneath the brim (pic #9), but again, that won\'t be visible when you\'re wearing the hat. Despite this minor moth visitation, this Stetson still has a mighty impressive profile more than 50 years after it first hit the shelves at Stripling\'s.