Rob, now you know how I always feel in these discussions. 🤪

Rick

3000

Ok it’s a bit confusing with two different “type pennants” being discussed. First we have the ribbed spine/tassel series. The red Colt .45s pennant belongs to this series, and is the immediate precursor to the Astros’ Astronaut pennant.

Then we have the zigzag spine series. I am positive that the Batting Sock pennant is part of this series. The felt has the same texture and thickness. And the zigzag stitching is identical to the Reds and Angels examples. In addition, look how similar the city name font looks on the Reds and Red Sox examples. Hope this serves to clarify.

Now Baseball Rob... your job (should you choose to accept it) is to go out and find both Giants examples. The Mission Impossible reference seemed appropriate!

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.

I'm confused too..So Mark, are you saying both Colt's images I posted are from the same set..One full and one mini? Both the ribbed spine/tassels series?

And I think Chris is saying is that his Reds isn't zig zagged. Or is he referring to something else?

Who's on first?

Let's call the whole thing off!

;)

The full size Colts pennant is from the ribbed tassels/spine maker.

The design of the smaller Colts pennant sure seems to match the Astronaut and Oilers pennants I posted earlier (from the ribbed series).

So, yes, it appears that they may be from the same maker. A maker who did not make very many pennants, because all of these appear to be rare.

The large Colt 45s is unquestionably a Keezer, and I agree that it was the precursor to the astronaut Astros. Observe the font of HOUSTON. It’s possible that the zig zag pennants are also Keezer - they are similar in many ways - just don’t know for sure. I have a zigzag White Sox that I’ll post when I return home.

The mini-pennant talk reminded me that I have this Giants pennant. It seems to fit with the style of the mini Colts pennant. It is about 12 inches. I have never seen a full-length version and have only seen the mini version once.

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! ;)

Not really a pennant collector, but I have these ads saved:


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