1900's Detroit Pennant Help?

[Leon]

I received, a day or two ago, an email asking for help with this old pennant. So here we go....


"I am not sure if you will be able to help me but I own a pennant that is very old that belonged to my mother. She would be about 95 by now and traveled the mid-west in her younger years going to baseball games. This pennant was made by the "W.B.Jarvis Co. at 237-9 Woodward Ave. Detroit Mich." (this is on the tag sewn on the back)

As you know this was a company Ty Cobb had interests in but I know very little of the company’s history. The pennant is Yellow with what appears to be black sewn on letters. It is about 30x14 inches with the company tag sewn on the back. I have spent hours looking for something similar but have found nothing so I am turning to the experts."

[SAllen2556]

Don't know about the pennant, but searched the company on the Det. Free Press archives and got this first one from December, 1913. I think the company went out of business in 1915 and its stock was sold to Crowley, Milner & Co in late 1915 or early 1916. The "going out of business" scan is from December, 1914, but they seemed to survive into 1915. Never saw any pennants pictured in an ad.

[perezfan]

Well, the "circumstantial" evidence is very good. The colors are correct, although I'd call this one more orange than yellow. The WB Jarvis tag is also a good sign that its an athletic/sports related piece (as opposed to a souvenir "city" pennant).

But two things will keep the value down... far below a pennant of the same era with baseball graphics...

1. The generic nature just isn't as desired/coveted by collectors who mostly collect these pieces for the aesthetics.

2. You cannot prove conclusively that it's a baseball pennant. I believe it is, based on the colors and the tagging. But others will inevitably disagree, and that lack of iron-clad evidence will hurt its value.

So the "field" for this one is far more limited than for most. Those who specifically collect pennants will probably not be interested, and those who collect Tigers memorabilia might be... but in limited fashion.

Hope this helps,
Mark

[SAllen2556]

Found this ad from May 17, 1913. Is this it?

[perezfan]

Different font, but great evidence/support that it represents the Tigers. Probably just a slightly different Jarvis style from another season.

Great detective work!

[SAllen2556]

And one more from the next week. The ad is self explanatory. I betcha it's one of these.

[SAllen2556]

Ok. Last ad. Shows all the cities.

[WillowGrove]

Great research Scott!

[Duluth Eskimo]

That is great research as I was unaware of the sale of these type of generic "American League" pennants. I would agree with Perezfan as without a photo of it at a baseball game, I don't think the demand is great. These type of pennants are plentiful and the colors many times are similar to sports teams for those cities. The big thing this one has is the Jarvis label, but I still dont think Tigers collectors would be overly interested. Jason

[SAllen2556]

Never mind! The font is actually different. I thought it might have just been printed different in the ad. A Free Press one is actually on ebay right now, and that one is actually from 1913 and is actually baseball related. Sorry about that!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-1910s-1...wAAOSw2XFUf2BI

[jcmtiger]

Anything W.B. Jarvis is scarce. All Jarvis items are sports and Cobb related.

Nice..

Joe