Help Identifying Vintage Italian Cap

[Jeonsah]

Looking for help identifying a vintage Italian flat cap.


Details I can confirm:

• Gray wool/felt flat cap
• Leather sweatband
• Satin crown patch with gold imprint
• Size 58 cm (7 1/8 US)
• Separate internal Italian production/order tag
• Family-owned for decades

The worn gold imprint appears to read (won’t show up in photos but using a flashlight I’ve been able to make out some markings)

• “EXTRA QUALITY”
• “HAND MADE HAT”
• Retailer name possibly A. Radiconcini (or similar)
• Possibly Via dei Macelli
• ROMA

Family history suggests it was acquired in Rome around the late 1940s or early 1950s.


Does anyone recognize the retailer name, maker, construction details, or have thoughts on dating the cap?

Not really interested in the value so much as the story of the hat as it belonged to my great grandfather, whose story is quite interesting.

 

[Daniele Tanto]

It is a Barbisio cap. The tag size is the same of Barbisio hats and also the paper label working track. It is not aged as you think, it is more recent, with better pictures it is more simple to date

 

[Jeonsah]

Thank you!

What do you need pictures of to help date it?

 

[Daniele Tanto]

What do you need pictures of to help date it?

Daylight

 

[Jeonsah]

Daylight

Similar photos in better light?

 

[Daniele Tanto]

Similar photos in better light?

During the day in the shadow, not in full sun

 

[Jeonsah]

Thank you so much for helping with this. It’s a bit dreary today but I took these. Hopefully it’s enough to help. If you need something more specific, let me know

 

[Daniele Tanto]

I confirm that the cap was made by Barbisio or by Cappellificio Cervo. It doesn't bear the brand, but elements such as the size and paper insert, workmanship, and commission are typically Barbisio or Cappellificio Cervo's when they took over the Barbisio legacy in the early 1980s. The cap dates to the 1970s or 1980s, especially due to its "Irish" shape, which wasn't used in Italy until it was imported. Radiconcini is the Roman hat shop that sold it. It appears to be made without the manufacturer's branding, which in previous years would have been considered a sign of quality, but this was a period when the Italian hat industry was slowly declining.