Show your silk banners...Wickwire Spencer Athletic Association

[CarltonHendricks]

<img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc120/CarltonHendricks/Wickwire%20Banner/wickwire%20banner_zpsbwac22ya.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo wickwire banner_zpsbwac22ya.jpg"/>

http://sportsantiques.com/new_page_21.htm
This was an interesting pick up...I first saw this Wickwire Spencer banner at the 2004 National in John Kanuit's booth...see on the page linked above...Picked it up on eBay recently...seller lives in Alaska...Tonight I opened it and looks fantastic...as good as it did 13 years ago in Cleveland!...Photo doesn't do it justice...In person the archaic 3-dimensional style lettering really pops!...Kind of reminds me of something you'd see in an old west saloon...The photo on eBay was dark and fuzzy...but I had a good shot of it to go on...

https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:fb494r02k
...The Spencer Wire Company merged with the Wickwire Steel Company of Buffalo in 1920 to form the Wickwire-Spencer Steel Company...
Turns out it's post 1920 according to the Spencer Mass history page above...I would speculate the Wickwire Spencer Company provided an athletic club as a perk for their employees...Probably the closest 24 Hour Fitness was too far away!

<img src="http://i213.photobucket.com/albums/cc120/CarltonHendricks/Wickwire%20Banner/Spencer%20Mass_zpsekcumruy.png" border="0" alt=" photo Spencer Mass_zpsekcumruy.png"/>

Interesting Spencer Mass is 15 miles from the famous Brimfield Antiques Fair (http://sportsantiques.com/brimfieldmay2011.htm)...

[vintagesportscollector]

They probably also had a baseball team and used this flag at games. The 1920s was a boom time for industrial league baseball - steel mills, factories, etc. The companies promoted baseball as a social, paternalistic, healthy activity for their workers and families. There was also a lot of competition, and politics between factories. Massachusetts, around the area of Worcester, was an epicenter and cradle for industry and baseball, and industrial leagues.....research this, good luck.

[vintagesportscollector]

Carlton, the 1919 Spalding Baseball Guide gives a colorful description of the extent and importance of Industrial League Baseball and Industrial Athletic Associations at the dawn of the 1920s.

https://archive.org/stream/spaldingsbasebal07chic#page/293/mode/1up

While doubtful Wickwire Spencer had a team at the level of those mentioned in the guide, I would be certain they had some baseball team. Given the importance that athletics played, you can see why they would have such a lavish banner to show their pride.