Early 1920's Yankees Pennant????

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Posted By: Pat Nester

I recently acquired this New York pennant. The person I acquired it from indicated that a relative purchased it in 1922 to decorate his room at prep school. It is well made with the letters sewn on as well as the piping. Unfortunately there is no tag. It is huge measuring over 40 inches long not counting the tassles. Any chance it being a Yankee pennant given the logo? Not the right colors for the Giants. Any thoughts? Regardless, it is a great looking pennant.

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Posted By: Greg Theberge

Great looking pennant, Pat.

Don't have an answer for you, but that pennant reminds me of my 1915 Red Sox in it's construction.

greg

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Posted By: Mike H

That is a super pennant. The size is very impressive. Definately from the teens or early 20s. The lettering looks to be similar to be from the Giants. Don't let the color throw you. Mark S. has an incredible purple Giants/Athletics World Series pennant.

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Posted By: Mark Steinberg

I came soooooo close to going after this one. But after seeing the others that the seller had up for sale on ebay (along with this) I just wasn't conviced that it was a sports-related pennant. It did not generate the type of bidding that a baseball pennant of the era would typically get, either...

The interlocking "NY" and the style of the pennant are very attractive, and do match many sports pennants of the era. I have an oversized Pirates Pennant nearly identical to this, and I'll try to post a picture later. It is quite similar to Greg's awesome BoSox pennant pictured above.

Regardless of origin, this "NY" pennant is a spectacular piece and appears to be in top condition, especially given its age. The unsettling (and rather unsatisfying) answer is that often we will never know the origin of certain memorabilia.

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Posted By: DD

NYU's colors are purple and white. Could the pennant be for the school, possibly a sports related team? If the person who originally owned it was in prep school, maybe they were going to attend NYU?

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Posted By: Mike H

Can someone post the auction link from ebay please?

I believe it is baseball. If it was an NYU pennant, it would probably say NYU. The fact that it is so large and well made suggests it isn't a tourist pennant some kid would buy while visiting NY, and if it was an advertisement for a specific location it would probably say as much or it would be an ineffective advertisement.

Did any of you read the lengthy article Dave Bushing wrote about the Tacoma pennant he purchased off ebay a few months ago? It was one of the better articles I've seen around the origin of these types of pennants.

Mark, please post some more pics of your oldest beauties.

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Posted By: Mark Stinberg

I agree that this one has the charactaristics of a sports pennant. But the seller had at least 8 other pennants listed concurrently, all of which were college pennants.

This was the main thing that kept me from pursuing it. I think that the "generic" nature of the pennant was the other reason it failed to garner a lot of bids. I wish I could find that original Ebay listing, but it's not showing up in their "Completed Auctions".

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

Anyone have a link to Bushing's article on the Tacoma pennant?

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Posted By: Brock G.

I cant help you out with the article but here is the pennant for sale at Mears for those who have not seen it.
http://mearsonline.com/forsale/item/?id=4110

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Posted By: Mike H

It's in the MEARS archive and you need a membership to read it at this point. The fact that Dave didn't bid on this might be an indicater that he didn't think it was baseball.

What was the sale price?

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Posted By: Pat Nester

The ebay item # is 160212186115. If you go to ebay and search completed auctions with the item # you will see the original listing. The "tag" you see in one of the pictures on the back was just a blank piece of paper with a number written on it in pencil. Regardless if it is a baseball pennant or not, I could not pass it up for $40 given its construction, size and visual appearance.

It did not bother me that all of the other pennnats were colleges that this person had. The manufacturers of these pennants produced them for all sorts of teams, events, groups, etc. It would not be unusual to walk into a store during this time period and purchase a baseball, college, football or city pennant all at once.

Below is a scan for an advertisement that is in a 1910 Chicago Cubs baseball program that I own. It pictures a Cubs pennant, a University of Chicago pennant and a Pirates pennant. I have seen an actual example of this particular cubs pennnant before as well as the University of Chicago pennant but have never seen that Pirates pennant in any auctions or collections over the years. You can't see that clear in my scan but the picture in the left hand corner of the Pirates pennant looks like a well known profile image of Honus Wagner.

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Posted By: Greg Theberge

Congrats on the pennant, Pat. It's a beauty no matter what it is. An incredible buy for the price.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

I have Denver and Sioux City pennants that appear to be baseball pennants, but they could also just be for the city...I doubt whether I will ever be able to know for certain, but they look great in displays.

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Posted By: barrysloate

It's a beautiful pennant but I would think it should say "Yankees" on it.

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Posted By: Dan Bretta

It's definitely not Yankees. If it is baseball related it's a Giants pennant.

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Posted By: Mike H

I would give my right arm for that Wagner pennant!!!

$40.00 was an absolute STEEEEEEEEAL.

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Posted By: DD

I still think it's NYU. The seller has pennants from other schools listed at this time. The description even indicates it could be for a school. The colors are too coincidental, and as artistic as it may seem, I cannot imagine any marketing advantage to having purple and white representing the Giants, or Yankees.

I understand the reference to the purple Giants/A's WS pennant. Does the pennant have a purple background, or are the color of one of the teams depicted in purple?

A great pennant nontheless.

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Posted By: Anonymous

DD:

Is this the same seller who currently has the Princeton and Iowa Pennants currently on Ebay (#160220988972)?

Both are identical in construction and appearance to the NY Pennant. I am 99% sure you are right about this being a college pennant.

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Posted By: DD

Yes, that is the seller.

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Posted By: Mike H

After viewing all the others, I agree it is college.

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Posted By: Pat Nester

Thanks to all for your responses to my post. That is what makes this board great. When I purchased the pennant, I thought the only definitive way to ascertain that this was a baseball pennant would be to see a picture from the 1922 World Series at the Polo Grounds with a fan standing behind the backstop holding it. Of course then we would be debating if he or she was a Giants or Yankees fan!