Dad's Mums

In honor of Father's Day, I present this tie, the last of the ties (to be posted here) that belonged to my Dad. When I first became interested in vintage ties, back when I was still in high school, I went to my Dad and asked him if he had any old ties. Sure enough, he had a nice little collection of ties from the forties, some of them quite splendid, indeed.

Unfortunately, some of them were in the old farmhouse when it burned to the ground a year or two later, just before I graduated. But I have the three that survived, and this is the final one to be posted. The two earlier examples are Dad's Red and Blue Paisely and Feathers for Father's Day.

This one is just as attractive as the other two. I'm sorry that I had to scan it with the pointed large end of the tie off the scanner bed, but it was necessary in order to get the entire bouquet of carnations into the picture.

Yes, I know I called this post "Dad's Mums," which would imply crysthanthemums, but these are more likely supposed to be carnations. I just couldn't resist the wordplay supplied by that title!

My Dad's been gone for several years now, and my Mom can't keep up with the old place anymore. So she put it on the market, and now it has sold. This very weekend, she's moving away, to live closer to my one of my sisters. That in itself is difficult to deal with emotionally. My folks moved to that little farm (13 1/2 acres, more or less) when I was only three, going on four years old. That was over fifty years ago! And that's been the place I've thought of as "home" for all these years, the place I've always gone back to. And now it will be in someone else's hands. Kind of a tough way to celebrate Father's Day! But it was inevitable; we knew it was coming, and it's really only a kind of ironic coincidence that it happened on Father's Day.

But back to the tie. It has one extant label, sewn sideways into the short end of the tie, which reads:

Resilient construction
Towncraft Deluse Cravat
Fabric loomed in U.S.A.

The tie is made of that wonderful shiny, silky, slippery fabric so common to the era, probably rayon. It doesn't have a brocade, but the design itself creates almost the effect of one, with the infinitude of small tine white striped lines that flow down the silvery colored portion of the tie's surface.

At the top end of the scan, you can just barely see where the fabric turns solid red, which would have had the effect of making the knot solid red in color, matching the featured slice of red that splays out across the center of the tie, and the two red carnations, which give the tie its dash of brilliance.

Looking at this tie, holding it in my hand, reminds me once again of my own father, bringing back many memories.

Happy Father's Day to dads everywhere!

Purple with Orange Birds

Last week's post featured pheasants in the brocade. This tie unfortunately has no brocade, but it also features birds, this time right on the tie, not hidden in the background.

What kind of birds they are, I'm not exactly sure, not being an expert birder or anything. But they look like fairly common ordinary type birds. At first glance, I thought they might be swallows, and the wing positions suggest swallows swooping, but the birds are a bit too plump to be swallows. They may not be realistic attempts to portray any particular species of bird, but may just be generic birds, who knows.

This is a gorgeous tie, with its combination of purple and orange, and with the background of branches, over which the birds are swooping and fluttering, indicate by the swirling movement lines connecting them. It and last week's "Pleasant Pheasant Brocade" exemplar came together in the same eBay purchase, the two of them sold as one lot.

There are two extant labels on this tie, sewn into the large end of the tie, rather than the small end, as is more typical. The first label is the seller's label, and it reads:

Goldstein-Migel Co
Waco, Texas

The second label is the manufacturer's label, and it reads:

California Classics
Hollyvogue
Made in California

As such, it joins four other Hollyvogue tie postings on the blog:

• Black and Silver (July 20, 2008)
• Autumn Leaves Number Seven (November 12, 2006)
• Coral and Starfish (August 6, 2006)
• Elongated Ovals (May 28, 2006)

The last of those posts talks a bit about the Hollyvogue brand, and provides a link to the current Hollyvogue web site.

Pleasant Pheasant Brocade

Now here's an interesting tie. Also a relatively recent eBay acquisition. On the surface, what you see is a kind of shimmering stripes of orangey brown and tan, fading into one another, and angled from left to right at about a 45 degree angle.

Right about midway up the tie (it looks higher on the scan, due to the limited range of the scanner, which can only handle 8 1/2 by 11 inch images), is a patterned stripe containing a vaguely floral pattern that could almost be Christmas inspired, with leaves of red and green formed into large draped garlands.

But by far more interesting than any of these details is the pattern woven into the brocade, which consists of what appear to me like stylized pheasants, or fancy long-tailed birds of some type. I suppose a more fanciful view might be that they are representations of the fabled Phoenix bird.

I suspected they would be difficult to see in the scan of the tie itself, so I selected one bird out, and saved it as a separate file, enhanced the color and contrast a bit to make it hopefully easier to see, and frankly, to make it slightly closer to the original, at least in my eyes. Of course, I realize that this is very subjective, since I have no way of calibrating my computer monitor accurately, so I don't know if the colors I'm seeing are even close to what you, gentle reader, may see on YOUR screen.

But hopefully the bird, at least, is more clearly visible in this closeup view. So that you can make up your own mind what kind of fowl it represents. These birds literally cover the entire surface of the tie, since they are woven directly into the fabric of it, even under the stripe of darker brown, red and green swags.

The tie has but one label, which is printed directly onto the fabric just a couple or three inches from the bottom of the large end, on the back side. If I hadn't already loaded two separate images, I would have been tempted to scan the label and show it too, but I didn't want to take the time, having some chores yet to do today. The label reads as follows:

Van Heusen
Original

So there you have it!

Brown & Tan Clouds

Here's another recent eBay acquisition. It's a nice example of forties color, style and design. It's not quite in the first rank so far as opulence goes, without any background brocade pattern woven into the fabric, but the fabric itself is shiny and glossy, as typical of so many forties ties.

The tie seems to depict a brown sky full of stylized brown and tan clouds. The entire tie has an orangy cast to it, one of the favorite color schemes of that era. Back in January I posted links to several ties utilizing this general range of color. Not to mention the "Orange and Brown Rosettes" from a couple of postings ago.

This specimen has two labels extant:

Resilient Construction
Towncraft Deluxe Cravats
Fabric loomed in U.S.A.

reads the first one. The second simply says

Fidelity Cravats.

Both labels are shown in the scan. Well, that's it for this week. Chores are calling (like gathering up and taking out the trash) and we still have to go on our walk.

A Green Dream

Isn't this a a gorgeous beaut of a tie! I call it "A Green Dream." It's maybe a bit TOO flamboyant, but I like it a lot. I have to tell you its story (the limited part I know):

I found this tie languishing in a junk store--oops, make that a second-hand store, located right next to the discount mall in Seaside, Oregon. It's a favorite place for us to stop and poke around whenever we're passing through Seaside, which is not too often these days.

I say "languishing," because the tie was almost completely disassembled when we found it. It was completely unsewn in back, all the stitching that holds it together had come undone. Consequently, we didn't have to pay much for it, 99 cents, or less, as I recall.

When we got back home, we took it to the dry cleaner, where a seamstress also plies her trade, but she refused to have anything to do with sewing it back up. Too tricky for her, I guess, although she didn't give a reason, just said no.

So Arline (that's my wife for anyone who doesn't already know), sewed it up herself, carefully stitching it up by hand, a process that took her a couple hours of painstaking work all total. In addition to the stitching, she had to carefully iron it, removing the wrinkles that were imbedded, from its having not been in the correct shape, or form for quite some time before we acquired it. That was truly a labor of love on her part! Thanks, my dear!

The tie itself is quite spectacularly over the top. It's a deep glossy green, with three downward pointing triangle shapes near the bottom, with a large pointed spear of fluorescent yellow-green stabbing down toward the center of the tie. I now realize I'm going to have to scan and post another shot of the tie further up from the bottom, to show what happens there. My scanner just isn't big enough to do it justice all in one scan. I really do need a larger scanner bed.

As you can see in the second scan, the three triangle shapes are repeated further up the tie. I'm also posting the label, which is embedded directly into the fabric and design of the tie itself. It reads as follows (although I'm sure most of you can read it for yourself):

Cutter Cravat
Artist Original ©

In addition to its striking design and colors, the tie has a large scale brocade woven into the fabric, giving it yet another aspect of opulence. The brocade consists viny curlicue patterned shapes, somewhat reminiscent of the classic paisley design.

Well, that's more than enough said about this tie. Hope you enjoy it!

Orange and Brown Rosettes

Here is another very nice forties vintage tie, which came from another eBay purchase. In this case, two ties were bought in a batch. I don't recall the price, and am too busy (or lazy) to look it up just now, but I am fairly sure it was more than I paid for the last four.

The basic pattern revolves around some vaguely floral patterns that I'm calling rosettes for lack of a better term. It's interesting that the brown dots make up the filler for the rosette shapes, but similar sets of orange/tan dots are just splotched onto the tie as kind of shadows to the darker ones, outside the rosette shapes, slightly above and to the left of each one.

The rest of the tie's design consists of concentric lines drawn around the floral rosette shapes, in ever widening circles, like the ripples around a stone thrown into a pool of water. It reminds me of one of my favorite doodles when I was younger. I'd start by drawing a few randomly placed circles, squares, triangles, etc. on the page, and then begin drawing concentric lines around each one, until eventually they began to merge with one another, and the whole page would be filled with concentric designs, much like this tie.

The tie also has a brocade in the fabric, probably not very visible in the scan, except as a kind of shadowing here and there. The brocade pattern consists of paired straight ribbon like lines, about a quarter of an inch apart, moving toward and away from each other in a sort of diamond shaped pattern. Actually, you can see them on the orange part of the tie. This tie, like quite a few from the period, switches to a solid color (orange in this case) partway up the tie, so that the knot would be entirely in that complementary color.

There are no labels on the tie, so that's about it for now. See ya next week!

Grapes and Flowers

I guess those are grapes. Not sure what else they could be. However, the flowers are more grape colored than the grapes themselves, which are more of a silver gray color than seems natural. Oh well, at least the leaves are green. And the flowers ARE a fairly spectacular shade of blue. Blue IS my favorite color, after all.

This is the last of the four ties I got on eBay a few weeks back, for $2.00 plus $4.00 shipping. Quite a bargain, I think. Since then, I've bought several more batches of ties the same way, albeit for a bit more money, most of which will undoubtedly end up here on this blog eventually.

This beauty is fully 4 1/2 inches across at its widest point. No extant labels to transcribe, unfortunately. I love that word, "extant," don't you? Here's one definition I found:

Still in existence; Currently existing; not having disappeared.

Did you know that one of the easiest ways to get a quick word definition is via Google? Just put "define:word" (without the quotes, natch) into a Google search box (note: no space between the colon and the word to be defined). And Google will display any definitions it has found on the web. Very handy, and if not ALWAYS 100% accurate, it's pretty close.

Well, I see I've wandered well off topic, which means it's probably time to close this blog entry. I mean, what can one really say about a tie like this that the image of the tie itself hasn't already said better? This is one of those cases where a picture is definitely better than words. Of course that never stopped me from blathering on. It's one of my specialties. Until next time, then . . .

Basic Blue -- Backside View

This tie is SO ordinary, so plain, so basic blue, that I decided to show you the backside, rather than the front, in order to demonstrate a point about the construction of some older ties.

The tie is made of wool, virgin wool, to be sure, but wool all the same. It has no pattern, no design, nothing hand painted or otherwise imprinted on it. Certainly no brocade woven into the fabric of the fabric (ha!). So why even bother to scan and post it?

Because it is indubitably old. The construction alone, says so. Note how it is unevenly folded over in back, with one side wide, the other narrow. This occurs on both the wide and narrow ends of the ties. This type of construction is typical of 1930's era ties, which are almost ALWAYS constructed that way, and some early 1040's ties, as well. But by later into the 40's, most ties were constructed with a more evenly divided fold in back, although many 40's ties still had a slight overlap, one side over the other.

Another clue to this tie's age is the lack of any type of lining. Most later ties had a lining of some sort inside, for stiffening, if nothing else.

The label reads as follows:

Fortmann's
Charmeen
by
Superba
100% Virgin Wool,

The tie is in great shape, given its age, and makes a fine example of simplicity in form and function.

Red Sections on White

Easter is past, from the standpoint of a church musician. All of those extra services (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday) and Holy Week recitals (two of those), choir rehearsals, extra anthems (3 for Easter Sunday), and all the extra practicing that went along with it. All done and over with for another year. Phew!

So I managed to find time to scan and blog a tie this afternoon. Last week? Not a chance!

Continuing the color theme from the past two ties posted, we go with another stunning red exemplar. This is another of the ties purchased on eBay. I actually got this tie, and the last red one posted along with two other ties, all for $2.00 plus $4.00 for shipping. Which goes to show that bargains can be had, if one shops carefully and consistently.

Admittedly, all four ties are in less than perfect condition. Mainly, they've lost most of their resiliency, and are somewhat limp. But look at the design of this beauty! Look at the color! Look at the pattern! It all comes together to make a truly stunning design.

The fabric is lovely, with a great brocade pattern woven into it, which is probably most visible in the short end, and perhaps on the narrow piece to the right, as well. Click the image to bring up a larger version in your browser, to see it better. The brocade pattern consists of small roughly rectangular shapes, spaced in even rows and columns across the tie.

The tie has no extant labels to transcribe. Enjoy!

Irididescent Red

Where does the time go? Last Sunday again found me without enough time in the day to scan and post a tie. And I'm almost there today. Just barely squeezing this in between chores and tonight's Masterpiece showing of the first episode of Little Dorrit.

Here is an unusual--but spectacular in its own way--tie! Just plain red, right? Wrong! There is no printed or painted design or image on the tie. Just brilliant iridescent red, with a maze-like brocade pattern imbedded in the fabric enhancing the shimmer.

This tie, like last week's, is one of a group of recent acquisitions, purchased ubiquitously on eBay. I bought two batches of ties there not too long ago, for quite reasonable prices. You just have to watch, and bid carefully, and you can get some real bargains there. I don't have time to look up exactly what I paid just now, but in each case I got 2-4 ties in a batch, and paid less than $20 for each lot. A trip to the dry cleaners adds a little more expense, but cleans up the ties, and voila!

The tie has two labels sewn into the small end, and shown in the scan. The manufacturer's label reads "Hand tailored Smilock." The seller's label reads "J.C. Penney Co. Sioux City, Iowa."

Red & Brown Geometrics

This tie's color scheme reminds me of the one I posted for Valentine's Day a couple of postings ago. That one was red and burgundy, while this one is red and brown, but they create a similar effect, especially since both have contrasting lighter sections. This one has squares filled with smaller squares, which sort of resemble windows on a building, such as on the side of a skyscraper. The one from two postings ago has sort of overlapping tile or shingle shapes.

And while all of the shapes on the previous one were straight edged, this one contrasts large red circles with the large squares, in a geometrically pleasing design.

I can't believe what BS I've just been writing! You'd think I was trying to craft one of those essay test questions back in high school or something. Oh well, that's what this blog is about, I guess.

Both of this tie's original labels survive. The seller's label reads "Erbes Clothing Mendota, ILL" while the manufacturer's label reads "Phantom Prints by Carholm."

So why was no tie posted last week, or the week before? Well, last week is a conundrum. There isn't any really excruciatingly execrable or extracorporeal extraneous excuse extraordinaire exactly, except that of trying to string together a string of words all beginning with the letters "ex." The weekend before, we were attending our annual family beach weekend, down in Oceanside, Oregon, and didn't get back until too late on Sunday for blogging. Too many other chores to run. As to last week, well, I don't know, events just seemed to overtake me.

Well, this has to be one of the most ridiculous blog entries ever. Hope you enjoy the tie, at least!

Pink and White Buttons--Gray Stripes

This tie looks nicer in the scan than it does in real life, I think. It's my opinion that this was probably a pretty inexpensive tie in its day, and it's probably lucky that it survived this long.

Why do I think it was a cheap tie? Mainly because the fabric is not high quality, no brocade, not even a rich sheen or shine like many of the silk or rayon ties typically have. The fabric has also lost any resiliency it may have once had, and is fairly limp. And the imagery on the tie seems a little crude in its execution, cheaply printed on cheap fabric, is the impression I get.

I also suspect that someone refolded the end of the tie at some point to make it narrower. Most ties of the period have more of a flaring out as the tie nears the end, while this one seems to be of an equal width for much of its length. And believe me, there's plenty of fabric folded over in back to make the end wider. It would definitely be a more dramatic tie, if it were wider as it approached the end.

So now that I'm through dissing the tie, let's talk about what is nice about it. The color scheme is pleasing to the eye. And there is nothing wrong with the design itself, vertical black stripes on a gray background, with pink and white buttons in a row up the center, and grouped in a circle further up the tie.

So, while it may not be one of my favorite vintage ties, it is in my collection, and I present it to you today, for better or for worse. The tie has one label, interestingly sewed onto the fabric on the back of the wide end, rather than the narrow end, as is more frequently the case. The label has only one word: Wembley, together with the "registered" R in a circle emblem. Which makes me wonder just how old this tie is. When did the R in a circle first come into use?

A Little Red for Valentine's Day

This is the best I could do for Valentine's Day this year. I only own one vintage tie that relates to this occasion, and I posted it already last year, so you'll have to go back and revisit it, if you want to see a vintage tie with hearts.

So this year, I just hunted over my rack of red ties until I found one that I hadn't already posted, which was difficult, as there are only a few left unscanned and unheralded here on the blog.

I can't say as this tie fits the theme of Valentine's Day very well, but at least the big red block in the center of the tie has a pointed end, like an arrow. Of course, one COULD say that it is a pointed end, like the end of the tie itself. And one could point out that there is another block, gray in color, pointing right back at the red one.

The geometric aspects of this design are actually more reminiscent, in my view, of a tie I posted back in July of 2007, aptly titled "Orange Geometrics." Had I not been stretching things to make a barely justified connection to Valentine's Day, I might have called this tie "Red, Burgundy, and Gray Geometrics."

The tie has no surviving labels, and shows its age with some staining. No brocaded fabric, either, which makes me think it might have been less expensive than some. But the design is very nice, quite striking in its own right. A very nice tie, whether or not it fits the season.

Bright as a New Penny

The name of this design, printed on the small end of the tie, tells you what it's all about. "Bright as a New Penny," it reads. So the bright yellow coin-shaped circles are obviously intended to represent the bright and shiny new penny, with the other circular objects looking like less shiny pennies, or just spin-offs from the original bright and shiny one.

Meanwhile, similarly gold-colored lines criss-cross the tie, dividing it into diamond-shaped quadrants. A rich shade of blue provides an appropriate background against which the rich gold colors stand out strikingly.

There you have it. There's not much more that needs to be said about this tie. It has no labels, other than the printed on name of the design. A previous owner seems to have inked his name onto the lining of the small end. "Loewe," it reads. The "L" has a long tail that extends horizontally under the other letters.

I suppose it could be a manufacturer or store label, but it appears hand-written. There is a frayed hole in the label just above that area, which could be where a label was ripped out from having been sewn onto the tie, as they generally are.

This tie shows its age a bit, in that the blue background appears darker in some areas, and may be stained in places. The fabric is less expensive than that of many of my ties from this era, in that there is no brocade, and it has a more matte surface, rather than the shinier, glossy look of what I assume were the more expensive ties. It just looks like a cheaper tie to me. Still, it's nice enough, and the design title, telling us what the designer had in mind, is a nice touch.

Maroon Thingamajigs

This tie reminds me of all my maroon 30's era tie blog entries I linked to back in July of last year. It has a similar color scheme, although I suppose it's a bit wider than most of those, at precisely 4 inches at its widest point.

Further, it lacks other characteristics of those 30's era ties: it does not have lopsided construction on the back side, it is lined (most 30's ties I own aren't) and the design on the tie is not woven directly into the fabric (as most 30's designs are). So, I would have to say that this is more typical of 40's era ties, but that the color scheme is very reminiscent of 30's.

The rich maroon background color is enhanced with a delightful brocade pattern, somewhat unusual, consisting of many dots, formed into larger circular patterns. You can see them fairly well in the scan.

The surface pattern, in pale gray or silver, lined with bluish-gray curving lines, is hard to describe. What are these devices? Unable to come up with an accurate description, I've chosen to cop out and just call them "thingamajigs."

The Wiktionary defines "thingamajig" as "something that one does not know the name of" while Wikipedia cites the term as an example of a "placeholder name," defined as "words that can refer to objects or people whose names are either irrelevant or unknown in the context in which it is being discussed. 'Whatchamacallit' (for objects) and 'Whatshisname' or 'Whatshername' (for men and women, respectively) are defining examples." There, I bet you didn't even know that there was a designated term (placeholder names) for words like that.

OK, enough about that. This tie has two labels sewn into the small end, and visible in the scan. The seller's label reads:

Blumenthal's
El Paso, Texas

while the second, presumably manufacturer's label reads:

Superba
Cravats

Sailing, Sailing . . .

Here's another nice tie in shades of brown and orange, which seems to be a favorite color combination for tie designers in the 40's and 50's. I have an entire tie rack devoted to this general color combination and hue. For a few more ties in this general color scheme, see some of the following links:

• Posted 9/14/08
• Posted 3/30/08
• Posted 8/12/07
• Posted 9/17/06
• Posted 3/5/06

Well, that's plenty to make my point. Some are more orange than this one, which is a bit more on the brown side.

The designs on the tie remind me of the sails on sailboats, although there are no boats, no hulls, under the sails. So maybe they weren't intended to resemble sails, maybe they're just abstract triangular shapes.

The tie also has one of those nice brocade patterns that I'm so fond of, woven into the fabric. You can see them fairly clearly in the scan, although as is often the case, they are probably clearer in the small end scan than in the large end. The brocade patterns consists of diamond shaped blocks in patterns of four, and more rectangular shapes in pairs, which form or fill a similar sized square.

Unfortunately, the tie has no labels surviving.

Brown with Yellow Ribbons

I don't think these are supposed to be the yellow ribbons tied "round the old oak tree," as it says in the song. These look more like ticker-tape ribbons, or maybe old film unwinding. Who knows? They don't look exactly like any of the above, but are suggestive or reminiscent of all of them.

This is an attractive forties tie, good quality fabric that has a nice brocade pattern woven into it. It will probably be difficult to make out the brocade pattern in the scan, as it often is, but the pattern consists of many parallel lines running diagonally across the tie at ninety degree angles to one another, creating, as they cross one another, an intricate almost braided appearance.

The tie has one label, sewn into the small end, which reads simply

Arrow
Made in U.S.A.

The "Made in U.S.A." part has an arrow entering at the left end of the words, with the point exiting at the right. Arrow, is, of course, one of the classic American brands in men's wear, and with a history that goes back over 150 years, apparently. Not that I know all that much about it. The Arrow brand currently appears to be owned by the Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation.

Orange Florals Kick off a New Year

FINALLY! I'm back, with another vintage tie. I do apologize for the two months' worth of absence, but things have been very busy. I'm not sure I really have time today, either, but I'm making time, since I really want to get back to posting ties, and writing at least a little bit about them.

This is a nice one. Pastel orange background, with splashes of lavender (pale purple, if you prefer) and brick red with off white garnishing. (By which I mean that each splash of color has an off-white shadow, or parallel splash next to it.)

The entire tie is covered with what look like hand-drawn leaf and floral patterns, drawn in a rich brown color.

The fabric has a rich brocade woven into it, which will probably be difficult to see in the scan, but which consists of plump leaf shapes. They are much more visible on the reverse side of the tie, where there are no drawn lines. If I had more time (none to spare this evening, unfortunately), I would have considered making a scan of the back of the tie and loading it as well.

The tie has one label, which is visible on the small end of the tie in the scan. It reads:

ESQUIRE
Cravat
Resilient Construction

and depicts a "coach and four," which is to say, a an old fashioned stage coach, pulled by four horses, with a driver on top, and several other figures, one of which, at the rear, appears to be blowing a horn, announcing their arrival.

I hope to see you again next week, with another tie. In the meantime, enjoy!

Taking a break

Hi folks, loyal readers, casual browsers, whoever you are!

I wish to apologize for the lack of any new postings since the beginning of November. I didn't intend to take this break, but I've just been ferociously busy, and haven't been able to find any time for scanning and posting new ties. Because of the busy holiday season, this unintended break may well stretch through the end of the year, and it may be January before any more ties get posted here, but rest assured, I WILL be back, eventually, sure as my name is WILL!

Thank you for your patience,

Will

Brown, Blue, and Yellow

OK, we're back to standard forties era ties, after several weeks of various diversions. It's getting hard to remember which ties in my collection have already been featured on the blog, and which have not. However, I looked through all my scanned images (which is faster than reviewing the entire blog), and didn't find this one anywhere.

It's a classic forties look, just a sixteenth of an inch under 4 inches in width at its widest point. The fabric has an elaborate brocade woven into the fabric, which is only hinted at in the uploaded image. The brocade pattern appears to be an ornamental floral or vine pattern, with small dots floating between the vines or leaves. You can see it a little better if you click on the image to load a larger version into your browser.

The tie itself is in a rich chocolate brown, with intersecting arcs of yellow and blue. At the intersections, the overlapping segments revert to the background brown, with small stylized tulip shapes, surrounded by concentric circular patterns, kind of like what an artistic person might doodle on a piece of paper during a meeting.

Further up the tie, visible here in the third folded piece, off to the right side in the scan, appear little truncated versions of the tulip shapes floating independently with semi-circular arcs alternating to the right or left of them.

The tie unfortunately lacks any extant labels to transcribe. So that's it until the next time.

Brand New Thirties Era

No tie got posted last Sunday. Sorry. We were out of town. My sister lives on a big fruit orchard up in the Hood River Valley, in the little town of Odell, Oregon. Last Sunday we were at her place, canning applesauce all day. It was work, but it was fun! And we went home with almost 30 jars of applesauce. Plus another couple of jars of apple juice. My sister and our cousin canned another 85 jars or so between them (we helped) plus some more tiny jars for a friend.

So here we have an unusual tie. Unusual primarily in that it is still brand new! Never been worn. At least one presumes this to be the case, because it still has an original paper wrapper attached, as you can clearly see in the scan. On the front, the wrapper reads:

Murrytown Ties
Styled by Wembley
Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.

On the back, the wrapper reads as follows:

60% Rayon
40% Wool
Mfg. 4075

And then along the side, running the opposite direction, and kind of blurry, as though it were applied with a rubber stamp or something, it reads:

Section 13, MPR 580
G.P.A. Retail Ceiling Price $1.00

The tie also has a label sewn into the small end, which repeats some of the same information, as follows:

Murrytown
Reg. U.S. Pat. Off.

I may have obtained this tie in Santa Cruz also, like the ones I posted a few weeks ago, but if so, it was 11 years ago, the last time I was there. I had forgotten about it, and had it hanging on a special rack of ties, not in a place I would have ordinarily thought to have looked. My wife insists I got it more recently, but I know it's been at least a year or two. I found another brand new tie at the same time, although the other one is quite different, narrow, and with a straight cut end, no point (I have a whole sub-collection of those which I will post here some day, when I run out of other ties to post.)

So is it really 1930's? I suppose I should research publications and advertisements from that era, to see if $1.00 was a typical price for a tie in those days. And did they already have rayon then? When did it first come into production? I honestly don't know. Maybe some of my loyal readers can tell me. Right now, today, I'm too harried and hurried to even go Google searching to see what I can find out. I've got several other things I need to get done, and the day (and the weekend) is fast slipping away.

The tie has two typical 30's era characteristics, but lacks the third. First, it's about the right width, size, and shape, with the characteristic flaring especially on the small end. Second, although it's not visible in the scan, it has the typical off-centered and folded over finishing in the back that all of my other 30's era ties have.

But it lacks the one final characteristic, which is having the pattern woven directly into the fabric. Instead, the loosely stylized paisley-shaped designs appear almost stamped onto the fabric. Certainly they are ONLY present on the front side of the fabric, and do not penetrate through to the back side. As you approach the bottom of the wide end, the dark green paisley shapes begin to fade out, and become blotchy, as though the stamp were losing its ink. I suppose this fading effect could be due to exposure to sunlight, but that seems unlikely, as you'd expect the entire pattern to fade, not just splotches of it.

Well, that's more than enough verbiage to go with this tie. Enjoy!

Thirties--Red Stripes

Here is the second thirties-era tie from the bag of ties I received last Sunday. This one is a more ordinary design, traditional stripes in red, black and silver.

The construction is very typical thirties, with no lining, just the tie fabric itself, with the design woven directly into the fabric, and a thin seam sewn all around the end, and edges. Off-center construction in the back, as you can see from the short end, where I scanned the back side, to show the label.

But as is also typical of thirties ties, the fabric itself is rich looking, with a brilliant sheen to it. The brightest red area of the stripes, and the silver line, highlighted as it is between two contrasting black lines, both glow and shine in a suitably opulent manner. That effect probably doesn't come through too well in the scan.

It's a J.C. Penney tie, as the label reads, simply:

Hand tailored
Towncraft
Cravat

Maroon Nobility

Just two weeks ago I was apologizing for presenting another thirties tie when I had previously thought I was all through with that era. In the meantime, I discovered another thirties tie hidden in my own collection, special in a fairly unique way, at least for my collection, but that's not the one I'm presenting today. That one will have to wait a couple of weeks.

Instead, this new thirties classic was added to my collection just today! After church today, one of the parishioners, a friend, told me he had a bag full of ties for me, out in his car. They come from his father-in-law, who, at 82 years of age, is in declining health, and is not going to be needing them any more. So, totally out of the blue, I had a bunch of new old ties to look through.

And lo, and behold, when I sorted them out, there were at least two genuine thirties era beauties in the bag. Lots of ugly big wide polyester seventies ties, to be sure, but in with those, a few real treasures, including this lovely example.

It has all of the typical thirties characteristics that I've enumerated so many times in the past. Off center folding and stitching in the back, and the design woven directly into the fabric. I'm not quite sure how to describe the design. They could be vaguely floral shapes, irregular concentric circular patterns, somewhat reminiscent to me of the lines indicating steep terrain on a topographical map. However you describe them, they are very nice.

You may recall that back in July, when I thought I was finishing off my thirties collection, I described the prevalence of maroon among my ties from this era, and provided a set of links to all of the thirties maroon examples previously blogged. Now here is another to add to that collection!

The tie has one label, shown in the scan, which provides the impetus for the title I've given this entry, "Maroon Nobility." The label reads as follows:

Nobility
Custom
Tailored
Resilient
Construction

Handpainted Autumn Leaves

In recognition of the first day of Autumn, which occurs at the autumnal equinox tomorrow, I present my newest tie depicting autumn leaves. I'm afraid this is probably the only autumn tie I'll be able to blog this year, as I've already shown off all the others in past years. I'm fresh out of vintage autumn leaf ties, except for this one.

To see all of my earlier vintage autumn ties, visit September, October, November, and even December (1 tie) of 2007, plus September (1 tie), October, and November of 2006.

This tie also shares characteristics with another group of ties which I posted early on, starting with the last tie posted in March, 2006, and continuing with three of those posted in April of that year. I described these ties as having a "brushed, matte style surface," and they are all handpainted, I believe, though I'm not 100% positive. There is one additional tie of this sort on the blog, a very special tie that I posted for Father's Day in 2006. If you look at any of those ties, you'll see why I put this one in the same grouping, style-wise, anyhow.

This tie shows its age by the fact that it has some stains on it, stains which didn't come out when I had it cleaned. I got the tie this past summer in Santa Cruz, California, while on vacation there. It was in a vintage clothing store, I believe, that we found it, for not very much money. It has one good size label, sewn into the large end of the tie, which reads as follows:

Made and
Hand Painted
in California of
Acetate and Nylon
by Richley

Orange with Interlocking Squares

Everytime I glance at this tie, before my eye/brain combination has time to parse just what it is that I'm seeing, I think for a split second that I'm looking at a bunch of those giant E's that optometrists make you look at. "Which way is the E pointing now?"

But when I look more closely, I realize, of course, that these are NOT giant letter E's. They are pairs of interlocking squares. One of each pair is always white; the other alternates between black or a paler orange than the background of the tie.

The tie also has an interesting brocade, which includes large circular patterns, and also sweeping groups of curved lines, suggesting motion. It's certainly a dramatic and colorful tie, with a lively, fluid design.

Definitely forties era. The tie measures 4 1/4 inches at its widest point, just before it begins narrowing to the point. The tie has one label, sewn sideways into the small end which reads as follows:

Resilient Construction
Towncraft Deluxe Cravat
Fabric Loomed in U.S.A.