habigman

Continued. Pouncing Automatic Pouncing Machine, Doran Danbury Final Pouncing Brim Cutting Automatic Brim Edge Curling Machine Hat Dressing, Ribbon/Bows, Brim Binding, Liners, Wind Trolleys

Continued. Wooden Flanges and Application Hat Racks for old factory, Assorted Wooden Flanges in the background Inspection prior to Automatic Hat Pressing Automatic Hat Presses Manual Hat Presses Hat Forms & Hat Racks from old factory

First off I would like to thank Daniele from the FL for setting up an amazing tour of the Borsalino factory! It was such a fantastic experience / privilege to see the inner workings of such a historic hat company. I would also like to thank our host Eva from Borsalino. She answered all our questions and couldn't have been more accommodating. I will start with a visual tour of the Borsalino factory and make a separate post for the Borsalino Factory Showroom (housing the recently released Fall / Winter 2016 collection and company artifacts). Daniele will provide additional content. Felt Body and Felt Hat Production Unfortunately I didn't ask if it was possible to take photos until we passed by the felt production sections. Forming Felt Bodies, Fulling Proces (a look back) Dye Department Steam Blocking Wood & Metal Blocks, Presses

P. & C. Habig Wien from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg , Germany hat collection, probably 1930s. A very high quality stiff felt hat.

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Franz Gober München (1927) from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg , Germany hat collection. This is the companies 25 year anniversary catalog. There are some great soft felt dress hats including some fantastic Velours. Click on photo to expand. By July 1927, the conclusion takes a Quarter of a century since the founding of my company. A review of the steady development of my business am to today's high and the fact that the initially small circle Dear customers today yet almost auonahmoloo to my customers geschazten pays, fill me with joyful satisfaction and determine Me, the recent principle to remain faithful. This booklet shows wages sent out my specialty the latest fashion creations of our industry, which you'll find in my collections. Continue brings you the leading men of my house, which for many years my faithful employees, In addition, a number of sights of interest, to which our beautiful Bayerland is exceedingly rich. For your old benevolence I express my Gratitude and thus connect the request, my home wanting to remain true for the result. With special appreciation Franz Gober Soft Felt Dress Hats including some fantastic Velours and other speciality finishes / felts.

Album für (for) Mayser 's Neuheitens (New Releases), Mai (May) 1914, from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg , Germany hat collection.

Hückel Weilheim "Derby" from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg , Germany hat collection, probably mid to late 1950s. Great form!

Echter Mayser from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg , Germany hat collection, probably late 1950s.

Echter "Nutria" Borsalino from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg, Germany hat collection, probably early to mid 1950s. This hat was made for the German market and is in very good condition.

Echter / Export Qualität Borsalino from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg, Germany hat collection, probably mid 1950s. This hat was made for the German market and is in good condition.

Export Qualität Borsalino from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg, Germany hat collection, probably latter 1950s. This hat was made for the German market and is in good condition.

Export Qualität Borsalino, size Point 6 probably late 1950s. Belongs to Anthony on the FL.

P. & C. Habig Wien, size Point 6 3/4 (59.5cm), late 1800s. Also another example of 1/4 Point size. From a Czech Republic source. Frankfurt, November 2, 1897

Resolut Homburger Hutfabrik "Sonder Klasse" from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg , Germany hat collection, probably mid to late 1950s.

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Continued. (left) Pouncing (right) Refinement requires so large an employment of work and so large a concourse of very perfection machines, cannot be compared with ordinary current product. And as matter of fact the firm G. B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & Co do not produce hats to them in stock, but only by order. The firm, tries the most it is possible to meet the consumers own requirements through the sellers agency. As soon as orders come to the factory they are sent from the managing office to the technical department and they follow the hat through its different phases returning with it to the packing department after a period of elaboration which is to last for about one month. The hat is absolutely of the quality, shape and color the consumer requires in his order. With a daily output of 2000 hats (and which very soon will be 3000) it is easily understood what a perfect organization is necessary to enable the firm to undertake, in every case, the responsibility of their own production. To this effort, to have and give every guarantee as to the quality, the work and the consignment the firm provide by their own means to all their necessity. The raw materials are bought directly from the best providers. This happens for the hair, the dyeing matters, the trimmings, the ribbons, the Moroccan leather, the silk for the lining of the hats. But through purchasing the raw material elsewhere the firm G. B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & Co. provide entirely of their own to elaboration of it. The hair arrives to the factory from the (left top) Hydraulic Presses (left bottom) Brim Flange Department (right top) Preparation of Moroccan Leather (right bottom) Edge Binding biggest english producers and it is of the finest and rarest quality. The same thing may be said as to the silk, the morocco leather and the many other accessories which concur in giving a hat smartness and durability. The factory contains (left) Cutting Liners (right) Stamping Moroccan Leather Sweatbands even a large printing laboratory for the silk lining and the leather. But this is not all: when the hat is finished. before going to the forwarding department. it must pass through a fresh an severe test. Every detail is examined afresh and when some slight default or imperfection is noticed (that customers would not even suspect) the hat is sacrificed without delay. But even a good product would not satisfy, if the factory did not know how to meet the customers ever increasing exigencies as to the type and the taste. The firm G. B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & Co. firm having to their disposal a great number of persons who have always been working to produce hats, who know by their own experience how fashion changes, and the different exigencies and preferences of all peoples and countries, has been enabled to choose from among them the very best ones for intelligence and taste and entrust them the study of the types. The information gathered by the firm's own travelers, the instructions given by the customers to the hatters spread all over world, a thoroughly examination of the fashion papers are the elements used by our experts to create the types for the year or the season. A big collection formed by all types made in the past years, serves to give a sure rule for the new ones which are to be issued. These conditions being given, a factory can, by its own influence, determinate the fashion and give the customers a guarantee of an up-to-date smartness. (left) Sample Department (right) Packaging This may explain why the G. B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & Co. hats are now exported from Italy all over the world. The demand for our hats every day increasing, because the retailers have had the opportunity for appreciating the goodness of the rules followed by a factory which working, as it does, according the orders it receives, intends to produce hats really matching the requirements and interpreting not only every wish and peculiar taste but even the strangest requests from customers. The photos accompanying this short report will testify of the importance of the Alexandria factory: but something must be added to demonstrate the seriousness which inspires its organization. Because, as we said before, the factory wants to suffice to itself and to guarantee its production against every inconvenience, so the firm has their own carpenter and joiner works where hat blocks and packing cases are Made; there an mechanical works for repairing the machines; a technical office under an engineer devoted to the study of improvements: an a big department furnished with a special machinery for the production of pasteboard goods of every description; packing cases, hat-boxes, card board rolls to protect hats from crushing or deforming while travelling to their destination. But a special remark deserves the skilled workmanship employed by the firm and which constitutes a body of workmen very different from the average workman of today, of nomad (left) Exhibitions Department (right) Box & Crate Production Section 1 habits and not at all tied to its industry by the bonds of sentiment or of a peculiar interest. The G. B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & Co. skilled workmen are united to the firm by a labour contract and by several bonds which originate a lasting cordiality of relations and a reciprocity of interest, which must necessarily exert a good influence on the production. The labor contract in existence between the firm and the workmen's body is up today unique in Italy; it contains the rules for the enlistment and the dismissal of men; for the ordinary, the extraordinary work and the days of rest. As to disciplinary matter, the contract does not sanction fines but it renders the workmen delegates judges of every fault. Every possibility of strikes is eliminated by a clause obliging the contracting parts to refer their disputes to an arbitration court. The firm provides to the comfort and the sanitary needs of their workmen by means of various institutions: a doctor is always on duty at the factory for every convenience; there is. a special creche for work women's babies; a providence fund for illness; a fund for old age pensions. But what is more important and contributes to guarantee the staffs attachment to the firm, their taking interest in the industry, in its progresses and in its success, is the partaking of the profits and the fact that a notable number of shares belongs to the staff. The firm G. B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & (left) Box & Crate Production Section 2 (right) Carpentry Workshop Co. have thought convenient of making known what is above said to all their customers from every part of the world, so that on learning of what an organization of indefatigable studies, of laborious energies and sacrifices the hat they get is the result - they may ever more be persuaded how it deserves all their preferences. The mark G. B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & Co is already well known all over the world; it is by itself a guarantee of a product which one could not wish the better; it is moreover ensign of that seriousness of purposes which alone can give a production keeping itself year by year, though confronted by concurrence of every kind, to a degree never attained in such a short space of time; and improvements are continually looked for, so that yesterday perfection has become the highest perfection of today. (left top) Mechanics Workshop (left bottom) New Construction

G.B.Borsalino Fu Lazzaro & C. prospectus (Italian, French, English, German, Spanish) from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg , Germany collection, very early 1900s, very late 1800s. This is a long post but definitely worth taking a look at. Click on photos to expand. (left) Trim Department (1896?) (right) Dynamo (left) Boilers (right) Boilers (left) Receivables (right top) Hair Sorting (right bottom) Cone Forming (left) Mechanical Fulling (right) Manual Fulling THE name of Alexandria. the ancient and industrious piedmentese town. is today deservedly. all over the world synonymous for ,,, fine felt hat ,, just as Malines and Valenciennes are for lace. Faience for crockery. Sevres and Delft for porcelain-ware. the Havana for cigars. Panama and Manilla for straw hats, Tolede for blades, Smyrne for carpets. Astrakhan for skins and so on. The felt hats industry has certainly become. with the spreading of comfort and elegance, with the continuous varying of the mode, one of the hardest and delicatest, wherever it wants not only to follow the changing of taste, but also to dominate and direct it and wherever the industry is not compelled to limit its field of action to the preferences of only a people (which preferences are often due to special conditions of use and climate), but to enlarge them as to comprehend and satisfy all modern exigences. An old tradition in the felt hats industry has brought up in Alexandria the most skilled workmanship in each one of the various operations (from the very humblest to the most difficult one) through which the hair passes to become felt, and the felt to be molded in a hat: there exists among the Alexandrine workman-ship, an experience almost hereditary. transmit-ted from father to son, which has educated the eye and the hand at such a degree as to give the industry a coefficient of a inestimable value. To such a workmanship, so much capable h their own skillfulness and by tradition, it must be added the truly powerful organic- (left) Felt Warehouse (right) Dyeing Department tion created for the best exploitation of these qualities and conditions by the firm G. B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & Co. It is enough to say that a particular group of workmen attends to every one of the 45 operations that hats must pass through; as they perform only a operation and always the same, these workmen are beco-ming specialized in a truly perfect way. Each group of workmen have their own chief. who oversees uninterruptedly their work and this accounts for a product completely free from faults, even the slightest ones. To all that it must also be added the fact, that by means of the processes used in the G. B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & Co. factory it is possible to obtain the lastingness and the immutability of form and colour. two qualities greatly appreciated by customers and forming one of the specialties of the firm. The weather and the long wearing do not have a influence whatever on G. B. Borsalino fu Lazzaro & Co. hats which claims to a lastingness superior to every other product of this kind. To give an idea of the industrial organization of the factory some data are sufficient: the capital amounts-tor the time being-to 3.500.000 francs: the grounds on which the work is carried on, cover an area of 39.000 square feet and the various building have two, three or four stories. according the necessity, to the end of keeping the various departments in a logical relation between them: tow clerks and workmen are employed in the factory: 7 enormous boilers provides steam for two engines of 550 HP (left) First Section Hat Body Stretching and Blocking (right) Second Section Hat Body Stretching and Blocking necessary for certain operations; 4 dynamos generate electric power for illuminating purposes. There are also 35 electric motors, gasworks for lighting and heating and so on. The factory examined in its details is really imposing: from the large stores where the raw material is kept, one comes down to the department where the hair is blown by ten blowing-machines works to depurate the raw material from dust and other impurities. The forming is executed by forming machines, the planking by other machines: for the dyeing of hats a special plant is provided for, which with its chemists, with its distilling apparatus, its boilers and other machines should be sufficient to give life to a special industry. And in the departments where the felt begins to take shape, different machines work, the ones proofing, the others drying by centrifugal power: hot sand presses are used to give shape. But before the hat may be called by its name, it must pass through the pouncing, finishing and polishing machines: hydraulic presses are perpetually working. Only to obtain the brim of the bowl hats several machines have to be used and many other machines are employed to curl the soft hats and to make the trimmings on which great care is bestowed. This rapid survey through the, laboratories speaks, by the eloquence of the data exposed, of the complexity and importance which the hats industry has attained. When it is thought that a really hat must pass through 45 operations, it will he understood how a article which

Cooperativa Cappellia (Cervo), Point size 6 1/2 (60cm, English size 7 3/8), made for the German market, from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg, Germany hat collection, probably late 1920s early 1930s. Not many examples of old Cervo and this the oldest.

Lord "Super" Rein Haarhut from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg , Germany hat collection, probably mid 1950s. Lord is a trademark (may have changed hands over the years) so not sure who made this hat but it has great form.

Lord, probably mid to late 1960s. This hat that belongs to Manfred.

Lord "Togo" Mohair, size 54cm, probably early to mid 1960s. Belongs to Paddy on the FL.

I think this trademark that changed hands over the years. Do not know the associated hat companies.

PH. Möckel HofHut (Court Hat) Fabrik, Homburg vor der Höhe, Hoflieferant Sr. Maj. d. (Seiner Majestät des) Kaisers u.(und) Königs (Official supplier to his Majesty the Emperor & King) und Sr. Maj. d. Königs Eduard VII v. England ("Official supplier to his Majesty Edward VII the King of England" from the Gotisches Haus (Gothic House) Bad Homburg , Germany hat collection, probably early 1900s maybe earlier.