Mysterious Vintage Caps!

About a week ago, I bought these two old caps on eBay. The seller was no help in figuring out what they are. I have no clue what they are but I'm guessing they may be high school or college caps. Here's two more caps to add to my "Unknown Collection", along with the that duck cap I found. Below are some descriptions along with some detailed photos. If anyone has any clue what they are I would appreciate if you could help me out. Regardless, there are interesting and worth sharing.

The first cap is dark red with an Old English-style embroidered "C". It has a name written in pen on the underside of the visor. It's a well-made pro model with a white leather sweatband made by the Leslie Corporation (Any info on that company is also appreciated!). The construction is identical to a KM Pro cap only it doesn't have the zig-zag buckram behind the front panels. There is no size tag but it may be 7 3/8 or 7 1/2. I'm guessing it's from anywhere between the 40s and 60s. It probably is from the latter era since it's not melton wool.





The second cap is kelley green with a sewn-on felt "B". There is also a number 11 (or a name?) written in pen under the visor, along with a "6" and "4" written on the buckram. There is only a 7 1/4 New Era-type size tag attached to the crumbling leather sweatband. The stitching is also identical to older New Era caps but it looks similar to those old souvenir MLB caps they used to sell. I'm guessing it's from the 30s to the 50s, maybe early 60s at the latest. It looks just like the 1937 Brooklyn Dodgers but I'm sure the "real" ones would have been better quality.




Comments

  1. whiteryancNovember 9, 2011 at 6:50 AM

    The first hat looks like the 1868 Cincinnati Reds "C", albeit a bit stretched...

    ReplyDelete
  2. MikeNovember 9, 2011 at 1:03 PM

    I could swear I had read somewhere about Leslie Corp being the precursor to one of the major hat manufacturers, but I can find next to nothing regarding the company. It does appear they had a liquidation auction of BASEBALL CAP MANUFACTURER INVENTORY OF ... SEWING CUTTING MACHINES in 1977.
    The only other info I could find on Leslie Corp were some employment ads for their location at 31 Beach St in the Boston Globe. Not able to find anything in archives prior to 1974.

    ReplyDelete
  3. MikeNovember 9, 2011 at 1:22 PM

    I hit post on my other comment a little too soon. I believe Leslie Corp used to manufacture hats for McAuliffe since both were located in Boston. McAuliffe didn't always produce their own hats and we know they outsourced their embroidery to Roman. Likely the hats were manufactured by Leslie Corp and embroidered by Roman Art.
    The want ads I was able to find for Leslie Corp say to contact Paul Kauffman. Any relation to Jack Kauffman who is the "K" in KM Pro?
    I am guessing Leslie and McAuliffe merged as both seemed to go out of business in 1976 resulting in the public auction listed as Leslie Corp in January of 1977. In addition to sewing equipment, the auction mentions 6000 dozen baseball caps and over 20,000 yds of wool, flannel and nylon. I would have loved to have a shot to bid in that auction.

    ReplyDelete
  4. MaryDecember 2, 2011 at 9:36 PM

    Thanks for sharing,well ! Most of the player does not feel comfortable while using these caps.
    You could get more information through this website.
    http://www.yourbaseballbat.com/

    ReplyDelete
  5. Spike24January 28, 2012 at 1:51 AM

    The red cap looks like a cap I have seen before at a friends house who played baseball at an Ivy League School, Cornell University. They wore throw back unis and that hat looks identical.

    ReplyDelete
  6. JerryNovember 30, 2012 at 6:42 AM

    If it helps any on dating, I purchased a Leslie cap on the destroyer Henry B. Wilson (DDG-7) in the summer of 1976. Could have been old stock. Great cap, very similar in construction to the red cap above, but now beaten down by decades of wear and sweat. Jerry Parshall (gparshal@hotmail.com)

    ReplyDelete
  7. ariasmathewDecember 15, 2018 at 11:50 PM

    Baseball Caps history is the most famous and most of peoples likes to wear trendy caps in summer or winter either to safe your skin from sun or for increase fashion style to look trendy. caps.amsterdam store is the awesome place to choose trendy caps.

    ReplyDelete
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  9. Lucy CarterJanuary 27, 2020 at 1:27 AM

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    Thank you because you have been willing to share information with us. we will always appreciate all you have done here because I know you are very concerned with our. Ball cap

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