Uncle George's Autumn Leaves

In honor of the autumnal equinox marking the beginning of fall this past weekend, and in remembrance of my Uncle George, recently deceased, to whom this tie belonged, I present these beautiful autumn leaves.

George was my mother's oldest brother, a WWII veteran, and an honorable man, beloved by those who knew him. His son, my cousin, did me the honor of letting me select ties for my collection from those that he left behind, as something to remember him by.

This is a gorgeous addition to the large number of 1940's era ties that I have which depict autumn leaves, and I am grateful to add it to my collection. The tie has four leaves, two depicted in a purplish brown color, and two that are of a more reddish hue, shown a against a beautiful creamy yellow shade background, which sets them off in a striking manner.

Higher up on the tie, where the knot would have been tied, the background color turns a darker brown, matching the leaf color, and tiny oak leaves march across the tie in uniform rows, displayed in the yellow color which serves as the backdrop for the rest of the tie. Tied, this would create a striking contrast in the knot, making for a dramatic and stylish effect.

There is a seller's label, badly faded, and worn, sewn sideways onto the back of the narrow end, and visible in the scan. The label reads:

Hollywood Pants Shop
1630 San P___ [illegible] Ave.
Oakland, Cal.

Scrolled Pattern

"Scrolled Pattern" is the name I've given this tie, for lack of a better. The pattern features a series of light colored dots, each centered within a square outlined in the same color, each square sitting sideways, balancing, so to speak, on one of its points.

This design, featuring a background color of a rich brick-red color, is set off by a series of scroll-like patterns down each side, drawn with the same light color, alternating with a darker brown, which forms the outside background color of the tie as well.

One interesting thing about this design is that it is not centered. That is, the swath of brown background color is wider on one side of the scrolled design than on the other side. The patttern itself is so symetrical, that one would expect it to be placed symetrically on the tie as well, but it's not.

It is possible that the tie was resized at some point, folded and made narrower as styles changed. A point in favor of this argument is that the tie itself is off-centered. That is, the distance from the point to the beginning of the straight sides is longer on the right (3.25 inches) than on the left (2.75 inches). However, looking at the back of the tie, there isn't any obvious overfolding as one so often sees. And the overall width of the tie seems to argue against the idea also. The tie is fully 4 inches wide at its widest point, and most ties that have been cut down or refolded are more like 3.5 or so inches in width, in my experience. Why go to the trouble to make the tie narrower, if you're still going to leave it 4 inches wide?

It's a mystery, and one that I have no easy way to resolve.

The fabric of this tie has a luxuriant brocade woven into it, which is not readily visible in the scan, although you can see it better on the back of the short end, as shown in the scan, than you can on the front of the tie. The brocade pattern, which you could see better, were I to take the time to scan and post the back side of the wide end, consists of vaguely floral or leaf shaped whorls or swirls, almost circular in nature, but with layers of long thin lines flying off the circles, almost like rays from the sun, or like the outer bands of a hurricane, as it rapidly rotates.

The tie has one label, sewn onto the inside of the wide end, which has the word "Wembley" stiched in white letters inside a bright orange butterfly-shaped embroidery style patch.

Maroon and Gray Geometrics

I can't believe it's been over a month since I last posted a tie. I was on vacation for a couple of those weekends, and out of town on another as well, so in between there just wasn't any available time for the leisure activity of blogging. Well, finally, I'm back.

Here's a nice 40's era tie, with a typical geometric design in shades of maroon and gray.

I sent this tie to the dry cleaners after I obtained it, not too many months ago, and they really did a number on it with their pressing. Pressed it so flat that it almost feels like paper, instead of fabric. I've got to tell them NOT to do that. It goes too far!

The tie has no labels to record, so that's it for now.