Hey everybody,
Now that Jack@HJ has been sheding light on so many questions that have been discussed COW, I thought I'd bring up a related mystery.
How many here remember this picture? This was one of those items being discussed back when I was lurking this site back in 2004. Folks were always wondering how this fit in to the hat question. Was Indy's hat among this group? Did the Temple of Doom hat exist in this picture? Was it the Last Crusade? Was the hat with the red arrow the elusive Raiders hat in a different color? Was that the Clipper hat? On and on and on. Many questions.
So I dug this out of my archives and brought this back to attention. He reminded me this discussion went back to the original site days.
Well, I sent this to Jack@HJ to see if he could find any information on this piece of our past banters. Hopefully he can give us some info on this old picture from a long forgotten brochure. This old piece of parchment found in the back seat of an old rusted out Plymouth in an obscure corner of a Tennessee field. Waiting for someone; anyone to tell us ........ WHAT DOES THIS MEAN!!!!!
I used to have that brochure. It's the same one I ordered my Indy hat from. The original Poet is the light grey hat at 3 o'clock. Remember it had a standard 3-inch brim which was trimmed down to the dimensional cut seen in the movies, plus the complete ribbon swap out. Folks nowadays are spoiled by the proliferation of vendors who produce The Indy Fedora straight up. Back in the day, HJ actually had to do some customizing to achieve the right look. And believe me when I say that is a nail-biting experience - waiting a month for your $300 hat, dreading that they might have tossed an un-modified stock Poet into the box, or if they followed the customization notes and produced the real Indy fedora. Even the the dice rolling gamble of ordering a custom Wested jacket was fraught with less uncertainty.
Yep, I have one of those buried in a box out in the garage collection.
This old piece of parchment found in the back seat of an old rusted out Plymouth in an obscure corner of a Tennessee field.
So THAT'S where I left it?
Steve Delk and I used to laugh that we would NEVER wear such an expensive $250 (at the time) hat in our windy Southern Spring-times.....and look at us now!!!
Question? The wardrobe designer of the day, said that she selected an "Australian hat" and Swales cut the brim down, etc. Would that be more like the wide brimmed hat in the middle...? Maybe you could shed some light on this dilemma?
Texan Scott wrote:Question? The wardrobe designer of the day, said that she selected an "Australian hat" and Swales cut the brim down, etc. Would that be more like the wide brimmed hat in the middle...? Maybe you could shed some light on this dilemma?
BSJ, she originally specified RW's. but this was one element that Ford brought to the mix. If a man wears orthopedic shoes for corrective purposes, its easy to see why he would want to wear his own shoes.
At any rate, the photo of the hat in the middle looks like it could have been something like the "Aussie" hat that we heard so much about; but, yes, after all this time, there are seeming inconsistencies in her narrative, whether it be the years, faulty memory, or embellishment. You decide. It does appear as though she was preoccupied with her soon to be wedding at that time, and this could explain some of the disconnect? Heck, its been 30+ years and relatively ltd involvement. Just wondering if it was in fact an Aussie styled hat with a large brim that was cut down? Interesting little side mystery.
Some of these questions I can answer and some I can't.
So this brochure is from the mid to late eighties. You also have to account for the fact that hj changed hands many times during this period. Completely new staff, with Richard being the only "legacy" staff member kept on.
When there was a change of ownership old stock was passed on too. That is why there is only one poet on the page. The poet came in an antelope finish, regular rabbit, and melusine (long rabbit hair) at the time of this catalogue a new supplier had been chosen as I was cheaper to ship out of Italy. There was no real importance attached to the block shape then, so we just ordered a similar product that borsalino was able to supply and was called the poet.
So what time seeing in the brochure is the very last "classic" poet for sale. The melusine poets were less popular, and there was obviously overstock. That's why see a lot of melusine poets about today.
As for an Australian hat. I can find no reference to an Australian model. We did do a safari model. But this was a military type fedora with a pudigree band and lower crown. I can only assume that "she" thought it looked like an Australian hat. Apart from I can't shed any further light on it.
Jack@HJ wrote:
I can only assume that "she" thought it looked like an Australian hat.
This is what my interpretation has been for a while. Based on the ad above, I could see her thinking about it that way, and having it trimmed. Sort of how some of us get the Akubra Adventurer and trim that down.
Some of these questions I can answer and some I can't.
So this brochure is from the mid to late eighties. You also have to account for the fact that hj changed hands many times during this period. Completely new staff, with Richard being the only "legacy" staff member kept on.
When there was a change of ownership old stock was passed on too. That is why there is only one poet on the page. The poet came in an antelope finish, regular rabbit, and melusine (long rabbit hair) at the time of this catalogue a new supplier had been chosen as I was cheaper to ship out of Italy. There was no real importance attached to the block shape then, so we just ordered a similar product that borsalino was able to supply and was called the poet.
So what time seeing in the brochure is the very last "classic" poet for sale. The melusine poets were less popular, and there was obviously overstock. That's why see a lot of melusine poets about today.
As for an Australian hat. I can find no reference to an Australian model. We did do a safari model. But this was a military type fedora with a pudigree band and lower crown. I can only assume that "she" thought it looked like an Australian hat. Apart from I can't shed any further light on it.
Jack @hj
A treasure trove of information, Jack. Thank you for addressing this. I am thrilled to get this background.
This is a great time to be a fan of Indy gear. A lot of pieces of the puzzle so many of us have tried to put together for years are falling into place now.
I think it's great that Herbert Johnson has gotten back into the ring !! I went on to the HJ website and there is no mention of the FB page or of anything new with their IJ fedora offerings, maybe an mistake on their part. Does anybody have an actual hat in hand to give us a real world critique ?? A lot of people are saying a lot of positive and good things without having product in hand and even making speculations, with what has been said in this forum in the past about HJ what is this abundant turn around ?? Curious ...
micsteam wrote:I think it's great that Herbert Johnson has gotten back into the ring !! I went on to the HJ website and there is no mention of the FB page or of anything new with their IJ fedora offerings, maybe an mistake on their part. Does anybody have an actual hat in hand to give us a real world critique ?? A lot of people are saying a lot of positive and good things without having product in hand and even making speculations, with what has been said in this forum in the past about HJ what is this abundant turn around ?? Curious ...
Hi there.
Everything is in the planning phase at the moment. That is why this campaign is a marked as a pre launch. I joined hj six months ago and. I was given one mandate, to turn herbert Johnson back into a quality hatmakers again.
For years hj had not been producing their own hats.
I had a completely blank canvas and knew we had to go down the hand made route. Totally ditch factory hats.
We have sold a limited number of pre launch hats so that folks can give us feedback and constructive criticism about what we've offered.
Good or bad reviews are the best way to get things right. Getting advice from those who are the experts. The fans.
3thoubucks wrote:WHAT does the blurb under the hat say? Only been wondering for 15 years...
Lol!!! I had one of those brochures at one point for a while and I completely forget what it said. But definitely wording that had almost nothing to do with anything.
Local Land Surveyor wrote:Hey everybody,
Now that Jack@HJ has been sheding light on so many questions that have been discussed COW, I thought I'd bring up a related mystery.
How many here remember this picture? This was one of those items being discussed back when I was lurking this site back in 2004. Folks were always wondering how this fit in to the hat question. Was Indy's hat among this group? Did the Temple of Doom hat exist in this picture? Was it the Last Crusade? Was the hat with the red arrow the elusive Raiders hat in a different color? Was that the Clipper hat? On and on and on. Many questions.
So I dug this out of my archives and brought this back to attention. He reminded me this discussion went back to the original site days.
Well, I sent this to Jack@HJ to see if he could find any information on this piece of our past banters. Hopefully he can give us some info on this old picture from a long forgotten brochure. This old piece of parchment found in the back seat of an old rusted out Plymouth in an obscure corner of a Tennessee field. Waiting for someone; anyone to tell us ........ WHAT DOES THIS MEAN!!!!!
Does anyone have the original printed ad of this piece? One they could photograph and display in a higher resolution? I'd love to read this and see it in higher detail. If you can take a good photo and email it, I can post in on my Flickr page, and post it back to this thread...
I have a copy of this catalogue here in the Herbert Johnson workshop. The catalogue was printed during the current Swaine Adeney ownership and the cover dates this between 1996-1998. The previous mention of it being from the mid eighties is incorrect. The copy here has lots of crosses through various products including the long haired Poet you guys expressed an interest in. I assume the crosses are due to stock running out. I have uploaded a couple of shots of the catalogue cover and a close up of the melusine dark purple/grey Poet.
Herbert Johnson has been famous for the Poet models since they established back in 1889. It is a classic style they have continuously produced. The Indy Raiders was a modified Poet. The one shown here in this particular catalogue is the long fur felt haired version, a finish called melusine. Not the clipper but another example of the classic Poet shape that we all love.
Hope that satisfies the curiosity over this catalogue guys and gals.
Wow, I haven't seen that cover in more than a decade! That's the exact catalogue that I ordered my Poet from back in 1999! Brings back happy memories! Thanks for sharing that, Michelle!
attention. He reminded me this discussion went back to the original site days. 
