~HATS OFF~

Hey girls...Get your coffee or favorite drink of choice while I bore you once again with yet another collection....These might look like just little hat boxes to you....But they are Gift Certificate's....Yes you hear me right....I started collecting these about 15 years ago I just thought they were the cutest little things.... BRIEF HISTORY:
In the good old days, when a man wasn't considered dressed without a hat, it made a great gift for Dad, Grandpa, Great Uncle, or any other man in your life. But Mom wouldn't pick out the hat Dad would actually wear, any more than she would trust him to pick out HER chapeau. She would go to the haberdashery (a fancy word for a men's clothing store) and select the brand, type and price level of his gift. She paid for the gift certificate, and went home with a darling little hat in a darling little hatbox, and wrapped it up for Father's Day...or Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanza...or his Birthday. Having received his gift, Dad then had the pleasure of visiting the haberdasher to be fitted for his personal selection of headgear, handing over the certificate to complete the purchase. The darling little mini-hat in the darling little mini-hatbox, might end up in the kids' toy box, to be worn by a favorite doll or Teddy bear, or it might just be put away in a drawer. (Needless to say, collectors pray for the latter, since those can turn up in mint condition.)Most often, the certificate would be for a specific brand of hat, not for just any hat in the store. Hat manufacturers competed to offer their merchandise in miniature. minis from Adam, Biltmore, Cavanagh, Champ, Churchill, Dobbs, Evans, Kennedy, Knox, Lee, Mallory, Resistol and Stetson. . The heyday of Gift Certificate Premiums seems to have been from the 1930's to the 1950's.

This is one of my favorite Stetson hats....It came with a little gift card for Dad....This hat is Green felt and with a Red feather on it...

Is this not the cutest little Christmas hat box

A Grey bowler hat with box from Knox Hats....

See you could write on the top of these to give as gifts....

This one reminds me of a Pilgrims box...but the Hat is Brown felt....

This is the only ceramic one I have found so far...Love it top Hat

This is the inside of the Hat....Pretty fancy

Now this reminds me of BJ of "Sweet Nothings" as her son is a hat maker and makes these kind of hats...A cowboy Hat

Oh and don't forget my Bing Crosby Hat ha ha!! this one is straw

This is a plastic one

Another cowboy hat....

Here's my whole collection to date of mini hats and boxes...I have 15 in all the last one I bought was in 1999 as I really have ran out of room here....also it's hard to find them in good condition any more without paying top $$ for them....

Now if I haven't bore you too much I would like to ask a question is there anything you would like to see in the way of Antiques ??? Crocks, Kitchen stuff, furniture, bed pans, condoms from world war 1, (yes I do have those not used of course ha ha) men's shaving and women's beauty items, slots machines, Rubber tire ashtrays, I really would love to show you what I do have and give you a brief history on them...I have many collections...but I need you to tell me what you would like to see...So please leave a comment and let me know what you would like to see and I will try my best to show it to you...Or if you don't want to see anymore Please tell me to Stop with the Antiques, it's up to you....

Thanks for coming by and letting me be silly again with my stuff....

Until next time from my mountain to yours,