Oh sorry Rob.... my wording was bad, as is often the case when I'm hurrying.

Regarding the more recent one with the orange spine, it looks to be altered at the extreme tip. What you commonly see is that someone took a scissors to it, to re-sharpen the tip (forming an un-natural point). Many times, these were yanked off the wall (by a Mom or when the kid went off to college, etc). Very often, the tack or nail holding the tip would remain in the wall, and take a chunk of felt with it.

It's very common, and often collectors/sellers will try to re-sharpen the blunted/torn tip by trimming it into an artificial point. When this is done, the pennant can lose well over an inch in length. I am 99% sure that's what happened with Marc's newer orange-spined Giants Pennant.

Another thing to note (which Greg alluded to) is that many of these vintage pennants were manufactured with a blunt point. You can tell if you've seen enough of them. Its a natural look, that's hard to define in writing. But I still remember getting a Braves Pennant at Crosley Field in 1968 with a very blunt tip. I'd estimate that about 15% were just made that way.

Hope this helps to better explain it!

Here’s the Giants with tassels (bottom ones tucked behind)

Thanks for the input everyone. I do think that the one I just received has what Mark described: a bit of purposeful tapering at the tip. I knew that when I bought it. I figured that damaged tips must be common with these and I liked the Orange spine better for display. I never considered that the blunted tip on the other one might have been purposeful/original.

Hard to say how much might be missing from the tip of the orange spine pennant, but, the more I look at it (and after hearing from Greg), I don't think that this pennant was ever the same length as the one with the yellow spine. It is more narrow for the length of the entire pennant and it doesn't look like any other areas have been cut, including the orange spine. The stitching ends the same way top and bottom.

Overall, these pennants have a feel of being not the highest quality, so it makes sense that quality control was not the primary goal of the maker. Especially this maker.

Greg- do you have others with the more silky/sheen spine?

If they made SF Giants, they at least revisited this design around 1958. If so, it makes me wonder if there is an LA Dodgers version.

It would be my contention that the smaller pennant got wet either purposefully to clean it or just a basement. When they get wet they shrink throughout the pennant. Not all, but some. I would agree with Mark that the tip was trimmed as well on the smaller one.

You guys have some nice stuff. Merry Christmas. Jason

Marc, yes I have a few, if I correctly understand to what you are referring. Most pennants, even cloth ones, have a felt spine and tassels. I have some that are 100% cloth. Not sure if I have cloth spine on felt though. That's pretty cool.

Wait....these guys are part of a "series"? :confused: I noticed there are some subtle differences between the NY and SF "giant."

As far as size differences, my NY Giants would say "yeah."

P.S. The SF pennant has the silk-like spine.

One thing I notice about almost all of the pennants from this series is that they have a generic baseball scene somewhere on the pennant. Swinging hitter, sliding runner, maybe just crossed bats. All but the Senators, that is … two versions shown below and neither has them. So I think the SF Giants might be from another maker, who just decided to use the Giant logo … which probably makes it even more cool, not less. I love the font used for the name.

Awhile back I posted this pic which comes from the back of a book published back in 1956 … Inside Baseball for Little Leaguers. (I don't own it but a simple google search pulls it up.) This was at least five years *after* the pennants from the series were (first?) made. There you see all the logos from this set of pennants … 12 of the 16 that is. There is no (known) Orioles from this set, and the Phillies had drifted away from the blue jay. Notice the Reds logo … I guess they didn't want to put the mad bomber (my avatar!) on a book for kids. Interestingly, that's the logo that Keezer used for their Redlegs pennants.

(EDIT: I just noticed, the one Senators pennant does have a little baseball towards the tip … also noticed that on the book, unlike the pennant, the Dodger bum is identical except that he isn't smoking his cigar!)

So were these pennants used the same logo but weren’t part of that series?

The common element in this series seems to be an original mascot design on the head-end of the pennant; with the city name spelled out and a player (or two) wedged between the lettering. On all but the Washington pennants, this seems to be the case. (Greg: just curious as to why you think the Washington pennants belong to this series.)

We can eliminate Keezer as the maker. Although they always used monochrome graphics, like those in this series, they also always used tassels. Thick tassels. The kind that are sewed in tight and never fall out. Moreover, on many (but not all) of their pennants from the late 1940s and 1950s, they stamped their maker's mark on the reverse. To my knowledge none of these pennants have any such mark. Also, I have a Keezer catalogue from ca. 1950 and the artwork used for the 16 big league baseball teams is different from these; and, different from those shown on Greg's ca. 1956 little league ad.

I think we can eliminate ADFLAG, too. Some pennants from this series feature tassels; but, the majority do not. To my knowledge ADFLAG never used tassels.

That leaves WGN. Their production of sports pennants began in the 1930s; but, it was limited to Chicago sports teams. Or, so I thought.... They also began using monochrome designs; but switched to polychrome about 1950. Most importantly, they used tassels in the early 1940s; but, seem to have stopped using them sometime in the mid-1940s.

To me, this last characteristic is the best evidence that WGN manufactured this series. Of the usual suspects, they're the only one that makes sense.

Of course, it's possible some other maker made these that we all haven't yet identified, like Annin. There has to be at least one other national manufacturer from the late 1940s that we haven't yet identified, and this series may be part of their work.

It's interesting this mystery maker made both an NY and SF Giants pennant for the series; but, only a Brooklyn Dodgers. I'd like to think I know LA Dodgers pennants as well as anyone and I cannot think of any Los Angeles Dodgers pennant that looks like this; or, utilizes that same bum smoking cigar artwork.

I've got the Browns Pennant from this series, and (aside from the Reds) it is my favorite. Will try to dig it out and show it here...

Also, I agree with Greg, that the Senators are part of this series. Same artist/artwork, minus the little vignette.

Also want to add that these are all very high quality, thick felt pennants. One of them that I owned previously had vintage ink writing on the back which stated the date of the game... "Red Sox 4 - Indians 2, June 16, 1951" or something to that effect. I don't recall the exact score or date, but it was definitely sold in 1951.

Lastly, there is a second Red Sox variation. Similar to the one Greg pictured, but quite different, on a darker red felt. I will try to post that one after the Holidays as well.