I am sure that quality restoration like this is possible... But I have seen very few examples of good (professional) work that has been done. Most alterations are easily identifiable and are amateurish. Lots of times, people with try to fill holes by applying similar colored felt from the reverse side. Other times, you'll see splits in the felt that have been glued back together (the felt will be hard and no longer soft in these spots).
The most common alteration is on pennants where the tip was missing. People will often re-cut the borders to make the pennant come to a point. I have seen many discreet examples of this, but most are easy to spot. The edge of the felt will have a "sharper" cut than the unaltered remainder of the pennant.
One altreration that's tougher to spot is the replacement of the vertical binding strip on the left side. Lots of times, these strips are moth-eaten or have missing/cut-off tassels. It's possible to carefully remove this strip and its tassels from a different pennant, and re-apply it to the pennant in need of repair. This is actually a good solution in many cases... especially if the replacement portion is of the same vintage and proper colors. The only way to detect this type of restoration is to look for the second set of stitch holes on the pennant. If carefully done, this type of repair can be almost invisible.
Below is a great candidate for this procedure (from recent Lelands Auction). I was very tempted to bid, as I've wanted this version for some time. But the restoration would be time consuming and the would always bug me. IMO, it's far better to wait for one in its original state. It all depends on your preferences (and level of patience!)
Hope this helps...
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