Quote:
Originally Posted by Fredskinz
Won this in Huggins and Scott’s auction the other day. Wondering if you guys had thoughts on what it is? I found an old thread on here regarding what seems like a similar DeMar pennant but I can’t see the photos for some reason.
Contacted the guy who wrote the book on pennants and he doesn’t know what it is. Anyways, any thoughts would be appreciated.
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Cool pennant, congratulations! We did discuss this very pennant and manufacturer over on pages 40-41 of this thread. The picture of that pennant is still up, in fact. It's identical to yours, to include the maker's mark by DeMar Mfg. Co. of Buffalo, NY.
That "reverse direction" style was offered by several manufacturers in the 1910s and 1920s, which is when I'd date your pennant to have been made.
But is it a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball pennant, I think your question is? I think the consensus was: probably not. I've seen more than a dozen pennants from that era by DeMar, and nearly all were travel/souvenir pennants. No professional sports teams. One or two pennants that
could have been collegiate pennants, e.g., a blue and gold sewn letter "MICHIGAN" pennant. But that's it.
The challenge with pennants from the early 20th century is that travel/souvenir pennants were far, far more common than professional baseball pennants, which were actually quite rare. I think the consensus of people on this thread is: it's a travel/souvenir pennant until you can produce a photo of somebody in the ballpark waving said pennant.
But hey, it's a cool pennant either way. Hang it in a room full of Pirates stuff, like your Honus Wagner T206 baseball cards, and it will look even better!
