Lelands 1870 Princeton Football Stocking Cap Analysis

[antiquefootball]

Kevin,

Mechanical looms had been around for quite awhile by the 1870's so it's likely that football stocking caps were machine made. The early catalogs show these caps as being made out of worsted wool, and the other examples I show in the article are all consistent in appearance with 19th century worsted jerseys. The Lelands example appears to be made of a much finer and softer wool and the knitting is considerably tighter, to me, indicating a more modern manufacturing process than the other examples. I'm not a textile expert however, so I didn't make that claim in the story. However, it does appear to me to be more consistent with a modern winter hat in construction and material than an 1870's skull cap.

Chris
www.antiquefootball.com

[khkco4bls]

Originally Posted by antiquefootball

Kevin,

Mechanical looms had been around for quite awhile by the 1870's so it's likely that football stocking caps were machine made. The early catalogs show these caps as being made out of worsted wool, and the other examples I show in the article are all consistent in appearance with 19th century worsted jerseys. The Lelands example appears to be made of a much finer and softer wool and the knitting is considerably tighter, to me, indicating a more modern manufacturing process than the other examples. I'm not a textile expert however, so I didn't make that claim in the story. However, it does appear to me to be more consistent with a modern winter hat in construction and material than an 1870's skull cap.

Chris
www.antiquefootball.com

Chris that is what I was leading up to it appears to me to be more of a later manufactured stitching on the Leylands cap. The 2 real examples look like they both have similar stitching

[vintagesportscollector]

Thank you for the extensive research and information Chris.