Donald Duck & a bizarre bonus!

[Kohima]

Just took delivery of a nice, standard wartime US Navy blue cap for my growing ‘blue tops of the world’ collection.
Nothing out of the ordinary, but a nice, honest example with all the bits you want to see - except a wearer’s name. Typically, for an issue piece, there is no maker or date (two things that the US Navy wasn’t particularly hot on).


The bizarre thing is that it arrived in a very ancient and battered box (so ancient, in fact, that I’m amazed it arrived at all)! What you see is how it traveled - from the US to Blighty - without any further covering (pretty shoddy packaging, on the part of the sender, but a bonus for me)!

My initial assumption was that the box was simply sporting a ‘retro’ style... but it quickly became obvious that it was, genuinely, antiquated. A quick internet search dated it to somewhere between 1934 and 1958, when the company closed down.
Thankfully, and remarkably, the customs packing label had been stuck almost entirely over the parcel tape, and I was able to very carefully tease it clean off, without any damage to the print.
The tape itself will require a little extra work, however, with the gentle encouragement of lighter fuel!
(It softens the glue, but evaporates before it has a chance to do any harm).

It’s odd that the packaging has elicited more interest than the item within, and I’d love to narrow down the date range - if anyone has a side-hobby in breweryana (assuming that’s the correct term). The artwork has a distinctly 1930s look about it, but could equally be from the 1950s. If it’s 30s or 40s, it will look great tucked under a ‘crackerjack’ mannequin’s arm!
Having paid the princely sum of $22 for the cap, it strikes me that the packaging is, possibly, worth more than its last contents!

The whole thing got me thinking about these occasional bonuses and I wonder if anyone else has had a similar surprise with their Militaria deliveries!
All the best,
Rob

[Rakkasan187]

Rob,

That is quite and interesting story and the box is great.

Definitely a brewery from Wisconsin..

Here is some historical data

Weber Brewery Historical Marker

Weber Waukesha Brewery of Waukesha, Wisconsin, USA - Tavern Trove

Smitty

[Kohima]

The ballpark...
The company used several different logos, but I can’t find any reference to this particular ‘here’s how’ artwork.