Here's a few, Chris...

1. 1961 Reds
2. 1961 Reds/Yanks
3. Adirondack Bats
4. 1954 Indians

Great stuff Mark!

Rob...You have this one? Just hit the bay. eBay that is.

<a href="http://imgbox.com/J6oVp7FF" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/c1/78/J6oVp7FF_o.jpg" alt="image host"/></a>

I do. Thanks, Rob

Bendy Man Giant tried the batting stance.

That’s great!!

Looks like he was tied up in knots, and caught looking on a wicked slider. :eek:

Awesome! Late ‘40’s yoga pose!

Was able to acquire this 1945 Cubs World Series pennant which goes great with the other ones I have.

It sure does! Great pickup!

That’s a nice pennant. I bid on it, but not aggressively. Glad you got it

Great pickup Mike! Perfect for your collection...

Congrats!

Thanks guys.

Not super thrilling, but it was cheap and I didn't have a red example.

Rob-
It’s a classic, and looks incredible with the bright Red felt.

I think we tend to become too cynical when collecting this stuff. Sure, it’s a common pennant, but the Mullin artwork is super cool, and is one of the best looking Giants pennants ever, IMHO.

Same goes for lots of the “Stadium” pennants of the 1950s-60s. Not rare, but artistic and beautiful none-the-less. These types of pennants got me hooked on collecting, and hopefully we will never take them for granted.

Great stuff!

I agree 100%. People get way too worked up on collecting what other people have decided is great. The reason we all got in to this hobby is because we thought certain items were cool or remind us of the old days. The most common items can bring back the best memories for me. It’s only my neurotic personality that makes me pick up all the other stuff.

Rob, I always liked that old style Giants style too. Looks great.

Some of the coolest items can be relatively common and affordable. And I'm very glad for that.

Couldn't have said it better....

I love it when there's consensus on this thread.

Can anyone ID these mini pennants?
 

Hi Guys:

Please take a look at this ebay listing where the guy has things backwards!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Set-Of-15-P...p2047675.l2557

The ONLY Post Cereal pennant shown is the Cardinals one fifth down on the left.

My question is what are the others?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

Fred

Agree with all of the sentiments above. As I've collected these over the years, my focus has shifted away from perceived dollar value (though I still like that too)...and towards those that I find "valuable" due to their artwork and/or uniqueness. Some of my favorite pennants didn't cost me more than $50 and in some cases, quite a bit less.

Here are a couple that recently came cheap but are pretty unusual...The Raiders one particularly...in the "1967 Single Bar" style right down to the material it's made of. The Raiders didn't move to L.A. until 1982.

<a href="http://imgbox.com/QTre7Qkz" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/95/19/QTre7Qkz_o.jpg" alt="image host"/></a>
<a href="http://imgbox.com/oPrYfOXT" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/6e/5d/oPrYfOXT_o.jpg" alt="image host"/></a>

Nice bootleg pennants, Rob. I really like the few early 1980s 49ers bootlegs I have been able to find. They are both rare and rather inexpensive, which makes them fun to hunt.

I also have an similar type of affinity for 1970s/1980s minor league pennants that I can rationalize as fitting in with my collection.

Even though I despise the d**gers (even more than you could ever guess), this pennant caught my eye on eBay. The seller claims it's from the 1959 World Series. Don't know about that, but it does show the Coliseum. I like the colors.

Toronto 1965 Pennant
 

It’s a bruiser! Any idea what it was celebrating/promoting?

I knew you'd finally come around, Rob. Let your inner Dodger fan out. You're among friends here.... :p

I think we discussed this red Coliseum pennant earlier. The batter, in particular, we identified as being associated with Trench's pennants from that era. But, while I still believe Trench made this pennant, the rest of the artwork doesn't match the many, many other stadium pennants Trench made in the 1950s and 60s.

This Coliseum, in particular, is mostly empty. 92,000 empty seats, that is. Most of Trench's stadium pennants, including a subsequent version depicting the Coliseum with a Willard Mullin bum standing over the field, depict full stadiums--illustrated by a random pattern of multi-colored circles representing spectators. Not here.

The only other Trench pennant like this that comes to mind is the San Francisco Giants pennant showing the very same Trench batter standing over an illustration of Seals Stadium. That one, we agreed, looked like it was by Trench; but, again, the ballpark was drawn empty.

(I know you own it, so I'll let you post it in your response.)

I wonder if maybe the normal Trench artist was on vacation in April of 1958, when I suspect both were made?

Here is the Seals Stadium pennant and a later version? from Candlestick. Both empty. Must have been night games.

I do like the colors on the Dodgers pennant.

By the way, did anyone notice that this thread now has more than 2,500 replies? I think that it is now the most replied to thread on the board.

It is definitely a Trench Pennant. I used to own a string of National League Mini Pennants, which featured all of the NL teams' pennants sewn to a long black spine. I'm sure most of you have seen these at some point in time...

Anyway, this same Dodgers version (in mini) was included along with the more familiar Trench Mascots like Mr. Red, the Batting Cardinal, the screaming Brave and the Pirate. I wish I still had it to show here, but am 100% certain that it is Trench.

Great pennant, Rob (I love "off-color" versions like this!)

Hey bocca, did you know there's also a "fat font" version? Just like the d**gers pennant, they have a crudely drawn "diamond."

It's where the cool kids hang. :p

Someday I'll find that fat one! I wonder if that one was first? The original.

Here is the subsequent version of the Coliseum/stadium pennant by Trench. As you can see, this artwork looks more like the others from that era. The stadium is very detailed; in color; and, full of spectators. The angle of the stadium is also a bit different from the red version discussed earlier.

This bum character was originally created by Willard Mullin. Trench used him on their Ebbets Field/stadium pennant too, made several years earlier. I believe Trench also used a Mullin drawn mascot on several NY/SF Giants pennants from the 1950s. So, apparently this mystery artist had a thing for Mr. Mullin's work.

There's a third version that uses the same batter seen on the red Coliseum pennant above--but, with the updated rendition of the Coliseum shown below. I believe they miniaturized this variant and sold it as part of an NL pennant string, as mentioned above.

1905 Football Pillow Covers
 

No doubt you have seen the same football player on circa 1910 college football pennants. These are two (2) different 1905 pillow covers by same artist. Courtesy photos: Mayseum, Daly City, California.

Colt 45s
 

This one just arrived. My baseball player kid really likes these Colt 45s pennants with guns shooting baseballs.

Recently Acquired Pennants
 

Also These
 

Nice pick up...Your first pic and second pick are in vastly different realms of value.

NIce 3D pennants. Drool.

Lol, yeah they are...I just bought all the pennants that were there.

1936 Stanford SMU Rose Bowl Pennant
 

OMG. Compliments of Mayseum Archives.

Jackie Robinson Caught in Rundown Pennant
 

Anyone have info on this pennant that just sold on ebay? I'm not a pennant expert, but the lettering and everything in general just looked off to me. The seller listed it as Jackie Robinson caught in a rundown. When it sold, it was with private bidders ID's.

thanks,
Rick

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vtg-MLB-195...p2047675.l2557

Attachment 367611

This pennant is fine and original from the 50’s. They did remake this pennant, but it was with the stiff bright green synthetic material which is blatantly obvious. It is referred to as Jackie Robinson because of the skin color of the runner. There is a similar White Sox version which is generally referred to as Minnie Minoso. Other than being a little faded and worn it’s a solid pennant.

Thanks. Good to know. The Dodgers lettering style wasn’t familiar to me, and I thought the stock was a little stiff.

Thanks again,
Rick

It looks like it may have gotten wet at one time or was cleaned a little. More likely wet. That oftentimes will discolor the pennant like you can see and also make the material stiffer.

Yes it's legit, and looks to be a typical AdFlag example, based on the age, artwork and font.

Good pickup!

Saw this and was curious if its a fantasy piece.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-195...p2047675.l2557

Not a Fantasy piece in the true sense of the term. It is just a reproduction pennant... same style as many that Mitchell & Ness has produced over recent years. Unfortunately someone paid about 6 times what it was worth.

You are right about the 6x. “reproduction”? I don’t think it’s a copy of anything that was ever produced in the 1950’s....

These are awesome!

Football pennants
 

I was looking at some of my Santa Clara football pennants tonight and was wondering about the generic runner/kicker/passer images on them. I have several pennants that include a generic player image (see below). I've seen most of these same images used for other teams, but not the first one (I admit that I haven't serched extensively).

I was curious if anyone has a pennant with this same runner image?

I'm also curious to hear what people think about which one of these pennants might be the oldest.

I think the one with the guy throwing the left stiff arm is the oldest.

Why? I dunno. :p

It is the dirtiest.

The oldest is the small one with the runner that is facing you followed by the one with the player stiff arming with his left arm. Then the other two that are just white would likely by 50’s with the one with pink on it being from the 60’s

Agree with Jason..but I'll say the three oldest are probably pretty close in age. I have a "Los Angeles" Rams version of the small one and the Rams didn't move to L.A. until 1946. The stiff arm RB and the punter style were used pretty commonly for AAFC football pennants and defunct NFL teams (Boston Yanks, New York Yanks) from the 1940s and early 50s. The AAFC existed from 1946-49. The Boston Yanks from 1944-48. The New York Yanks 1950-51.

Interesting to note (to me anyway) the punter graphic made a comeback with Trench in the early 1960s. I've seen Cowboys, Raiders, Packers examples, with the Cowboys and Raiders not existing until 1960. But these are distinctive, because the flags around the stadium look like flags now...compared to the 1940s version (Marc's), in which the flags look like star blobs. All of the 1940s pennants have flags like this.

1940s version (star blob flags)

<a href="http://imgbox.com/1NqVqN1p" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/68/86/1NqVqN1p_o.png" alt="image host"/></a>

1960s version (normal flags)

<a href="http://imgbox.com/7SfI2rMd" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/76/4c/7SfI2rMd_o.png" alt="image host"/></a>

Santa Clara Pennant with Quarterback
 

I have the Stanford version of the Throwing Quarterack. It is in the likeness of Frankie Albert so I am thinking it is from the 1940's.

Thanks for the responses.

I was thinking 1940s of 1950s for the QB too, mostly because Santa Clara's big time football program was gone by 1952. I have seen the Stanford version. I wonder if there are others?

I'm still curious if the first one appears for any other team.

And the info about the "blob" flags on the punter pennant is interesting. I remember seeing a Raiders pennant with the punter and thinking that the image was too old. It's good to know that the flags can tell us some general info about older vs. newer.

I also have the punter with no stadium, which I assume is older. It looks and feels (and smells) older.

I don’t doubt Jason, but the font on the pennant he identifies as the oldest looks like that of those 3/4 Giants pennants of the 1960s.

Beware!
 

Yet another fake listing. Obvious Mitchell & Ness Repro with artificial aging and wear. It is not original, or even old. Be careful out there...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1930-s-Chic...cAAOSwwzZdmo3f

F###ing Mitchell & Ness. :mad:

Rob,
I hear what you’re saying. The make up of the pennant, the one dimensional player / rusher, and the size and tassel location are all common to that 30’s to early 40’s era. I believe there is an exact New York Giants football pennant with this design.

In regards to the pink runner, both of the B&W are classic early 50’s designs. Yes, bootleg pennant producers did use older styles and adapted their one color productions for 60’s teams. Those pennants are generally very difficult to find. So, it’s possible the two runners with stiff arm are newer, but I’m guessing early 50’s ish.

The reason with the one with pink that I called the newest is because of the pink. Hot pink did not really come to favor until the late 50’s early 60’s. It was very popular mid to late 60’s.

I’m open to other info so if someone has more info I’m all ears. Take care, Jason

Gotta love the hot pink! And nobody did it better than the Pirates of the 1960s. Just something about that neon pink against the jet black felt... loved it as a kid, and still like it today!

The polychromatic (usually pink) player design was created by Trench and used as late as ca. 1965, when this Notre Dame pennant below was produced. I don't believe they used this design very often; or for very long. He's pretty cool, I have to admit (even though Notre Dame never wore blue/pink unis).

Interesting discussion about the punter player design with the stadium and flags behind. This one too was used by Trench; and, as was noted above, Trench used this design from the 1940s through 1960 or so. I had never noticed the variations in the flags across the decades--good observation!

I'm in agreement that the oldest design of those Santa Clara pennants is likely the running back running directly into the viewer. I think this one may be an early design by WGN that they used in the early 1940s, or earlier. It's definitely old.

The most interesting design, for me, is that left handed player stiff arm design. I wish I could tell you who made it. Whoever they were, they were huge, as that design can be seen on so many collegiate and professional football pennants from the 1940s. They're always monochrome; tassel-less; and full size.

And, this same mystery manufacturer also made MLB pennants throughout the 1940s that embody the same characteristics. Like this pair of Brooklyn Dodgers pennants from the AAFC and NL....

Whoever they were, they made a lot of pennants for many teams, leagues, etc. throughout the 1940s.

Beautiful Pennants! They are all Collegiate of Ames and they only made 4 MLB pennants.
Brooklyn Dodgers
New York Giants
New York Yankees
and .... Boston Red Sox

I just added the middle 49ers pennant to my collection. About the only vintage piece I've been able to add lately.

I also added the more modern white Astros pennant (below). This pennant is more difficult to find than you'd think, especially in decent condition (see the yellowed version above it). Love the tequlia sunrise colors, and the Astrodome (which dominates most Astros pennants of the era) is nowhere to be seen. Because the Astros version has been so tough to find, I went ahead and picked up a clean version of the Giants pennant (I think it is the same series). I believe that these date to 1982/1983, as there are a number of similar looking Phillies world champs pennants for sale on eBay.

That's a very nice addition! Lifelong Rams fan here, so it pains me to look at it.... but what a cool pennant (and rare!)

Great stuff!

Did one of you guys buy the football lot that was in Heritage? Nice lot of very nice pennants. I bid, but for resale and figured it would go well above what I bid.

Someone got a nice deal. I already had most of those, and didn't want to deal with selling off the majority. But the total price was lots better than they would've cost individually.

I bid early but dropped out pretty early as well. I wanted the Chicago Cardinals and planned on selling the rest. Last I checked, the lot had exceeded what I wanted to pay with 28.25% added on. What did it go for? Went to check HA.com but they've been hacked.

Missing color(s)
 

Do you guys have examples of this? I'm wondering how it happened. Hell, I don't even know if 1960s pennants were printed by hand or came down an "assembly line." I'll bet Domer05 knows... ;)

BTW - the first two and last two are hard to come by.

I only have the first and fourth ones pictured. Never knew there were so many variations of that pennant. Must have been a very limited release back in the day, as you never see these.

I was getting at color vs. lack of color, in case I wasn’t clear.

Yeah, it would be interesting to see the process of these being made. I had a firend with a t-shirt business years ago (late 1980s) and the process involved dragging a blob of paint across somethng like a template that was over the shirt (series of templates, series of different color blobs). Went pretty quickly, but each involved a single person doing each color by hand. I wonder if the process is/was similar.

You are describing silk screening. We did it in high school shop class. I made the image of a flat track motorcycle racer :p. You “drag” the “blob” with a rubber squeegee, over a thin film with a silk like backing. You cut and peel the film from the porous portion where you want the paint to transfer. This is how I always assumed older pennants were made. Maybe on some I showed, the “color guy” called in sick.

Domer? Paging Domer!

PRESENT!

Yeah, no question about the manufacturing process here: by the 1960s, most pennant makers were silk screening their artwork and texts. And, yes, the process involved silk screen mesh, stretched tight over a wooden frame. The maker would then transfer the artwork from a sheet of paper to a photo positive--which in turn was applied to the mesh, kind of like a stencil. For a monochrome design, they'd squeegee the single color "blob" of ink over the stencil + mesh until the desired graphics and texts emerged from the openings and on to the felt beneath it. After drying, they'd hand cut the triangular pennants out, sew in the spine and tassels, then call it a day.

For polychrome designs, which Trench was always the industry leader on, they'd use like 3-4 colors per pennant. And, yes, this significantly lengthens the process; and, the manufacturing costs.

With Trench, I too have noticed slight color variations in the same pennant made over several years. Some are really bright; while others look more dull. I don't know if this is a difference in the inks used during the manufacturing process between the years; or, the effects of time itself, e.g., sun damage. Who knows? But many of their stadium pennants were sold for 10 years or more; so, it makes sense that they may have altered a color once or twice, for whatever reason.

Both Trench and ADFLAG offered their customers a polychromatic and monochromatic version of their stadium pennants. If you look at my blog posts on these two companies, you'll see exactly what I mean. (See the Dodger and Giant pennants at the end of this piece: https://pennantfever.weebly.com/blog...tising-flag-co ) I suspect they simply wanted to offer their retailers two different price points to market their products at.

Finally, I've noticed that many of the NL/AL champions pennants that would have been sold at a world series game were monochrome. That's probably because manufacturers didn't have a lot of time to make these; and, the multi-colored variant would have taken too long to produce.

^^^^^ So, you believe the monochromes were intentional? You’re probably right. I had always considered them mistakes. I’d love to know if your “different price points” theory is correct as well.

I had wondered about price/cost point being a factor as well.

One interesting thing about the pennants Rob posted is how rare they are. I've been collecting Giants pennants for 5+ years and have never seen even one of the pennant(s) Rob posted (with the batter in the stadium) for sale during that time. I'd expect to see variations for a design that was very common, because it sold for a long time, had multiple production runs, etc. Why so many variations of such a rare pennant?

Here's some more examples of the color variations Trench offered. The below pennant was sold at Dodger Stadium and through the team's mail order catalog from the 1960s through the early 1980s. The first is their simple, two-color variation. White and green, that's it.

Next is the polychrome variant, with at least five different shades of color.

Finally, here's the same polychrome pennant; but, the colors have faded, probably due to sun exposure. From a distance, it almost appears monochrome.

Same design. Different color options.

Anyone have a Syracuse University Baseball Pennant?

How about the pennants from the late 40s/early 50s that seem to have spray-painted colors? This style is a fairly thick felt, wide spine, single stitch, and thin tassels that are further from the corners. The dated Tigers pennants from early 50s seem to fit this mold.

Agree....that kind of effect couldn’t be done with silk screen.

I hear you guys, but even that Cleveland pennant was silk screened. The base layer in white would have been the first layer applied; and, it would have been screened on. No question. It had to be. Otherwise, the red felt would show through the white lettering, making it look pinkish.

On the other hand, the secondary color applications may not have been screened on.... I'm still trying to figure that out because I think that look is really cool. I believe they called that a "color gradient" because, well, the color goes from dark to light to nothing. Typically, this mystery maker applied this effect to the text (which was white) that ran across the pennant, moving in a horizontal line, from top to bottom or bottom to top.

Here's some White Sox and Yankees pennants that feature a two-color gradient. Both were made by the same unknown manufacturer as part of a whole series of mostly monochrome pennants featuring a ball running through the team's name. This "ball through the name" series was made throughout the 1950s and includes a dated 1951 Tigers pennant as well as a ca. 1958 Los Angeles Dodgers pennant.

It's possible they created this gradient by air brushing the colors atop the white base layer. It's also possible they screened it on, using the squeegee like a brush, applying a quick burst of pressure while gradually letting that pressure diminish. Or maybe they rolled the ink on with a roller? Who knows? But it is a very cool look.

I don't believe ADFLAG made either the Cleveland or this Sox or Yankees pennants; but, ADFLAG did make a San Francisco Giants pennant using the same technique.

[I know Rob will happily post it soon enough....]

Interestingly...or not...I've always wondered about this Niners pennant. It looks like someone took spray paint to it...Not really accomplishing the gradient look with the green across forty niners, but some success with the red across San Francisco. Maybe an early attempt at a competitor trying to copy the technique.

<a href="http://imgbox.com/oil5iD94" target="_blank"><img src="https://images2.imgbox.com/53/bf/oil5iD94_o.png" alt="image host"/></a>

No doubt, the white was silk screened. I'm 99.9% certain the "secondary color applications" had to be airbrushed. The airbrush was invented in the late 1800's and custom car culture made the technique very popular in the 1950's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbrush

:p

This Chicago pennant has been discussed before. I noticed this San Francisco pennant on eBay dated 1915 which has the same “bear” mascot. Makes me think the pennant maker made these for numerous cities using the same mascot. Seeing this pennant makes me think these are not sports related.