The Homburg was made popular as a semi-formal hat by Edward the Prince of Wales in the 1890’s. It was worn for more than half a Century as an alternative to a Bowler hat then as an alternative to the Trilby Hat. It was one of Churchill’s favorite hat and when his British Foreign Minister Anthony Eden started wearing it they even started being called the “Eden Hat”. of Interest to Americans Eisenhower wore a Homburg to his second inaugural in place of the traditional top hat. You can find out a lot of the history of this hat on the web just search “Homburg Hat”.
The hat is made of stiffen felt which is not as rigid as a top hat. It has a single dent running down the centre of the crown (sometimes called a “gutter crown”). It has a wide grosgrain ribbon around the base of the crown and a nearly flat brim with a grosgrain bound “pencil curl” edge. It curls up and slightly in but not as much as a standard top hat edge.
You can see the bow from the wearer’s left side It has two loop and one tail that is hemmed.
The center of the bow has ribbon that one pleat about 1/3 of the way from the right then the left edge is folded over to. create a triple fold look.
This is a look from the back side. This hat needs a little re-blocking to take out some of the bumps.
This is the non-bow side.
Such a fancy lining. Not only is a logo printed it has red lines. Because of the dent in the crown the bottom of the soft lining bunches up front and back. The sweat band is soft leather and there is a looped cord and red fringe tassel in the center back next to the size tag. The leather is stamped with the sellers info in gold leaf and the style name on the other side.
Here is a close-up of the looped cord and red fringe tassel in the center back next to the size tag. Which is 7 1/2.
This hat like the collapsible top hat is from “The Finchley Establishment” in Chicago. Even though I got it with a hat box the hat box is not the original Finchley’s box.
I did think that the sweatband was mostly sewn on, it was not. The thread is rotting away. It interesting the stitching that sews on the leather does not go to the outside of the hat and it a machine stitch. That must have been some fancy sewing machine used for just sewing on sweatbands.
From the edge with the leather pulled back you can see first the line of rotten threads then some long stitches just below that to hold the hatband in place (those go thru the wool felt). Below that is the edge of the silk lining folded under and some long stitches to hold that in place. You do not see that where the leather sweatband is in it’s proper place.
If I want to restore this hat to a wearable condition, I will have to remove all the threads and hand sew it back thru the existing holes in the leather. It’s going to take some fine thread and a fine needle and some time. If you are a 7 1/2 and are looking for a Homburg in like new condition let me know, make me an offer and I will sew the leather in.
Just under the leather band I found some folded paper. It seemed to be there to downsize the hat a fraction, I’m not sure. One very interesting thing was the price tag. It seems to say $7.50. The hat might have been owned by someone who worked for “the Building Owners Federation of Mutual Fire Insurance Companies”