Kyle and Marc too.... Thanks to you both for solving yet another gonfalon mystery. :)

Not gonna lie…had to google “gonfalon.” :cool:

Epstein Novelty Co.
 

Right. So, who saw it being Epstein Novelty Co.? Raise your hand!

I have seen their pennants/labels for years; but, always assumed they were a small novelty distributor serving the New York area that sold, among other products, felt pennants. But, they must've actually been a manufacturer of pennants.

Epstein Novelty Co. goes back to the 1910s, when they primarily made badges and buttons. You'll see WWI-themed buttons bearing their mark and address on the reverse. Did they make pennants back then, too? Unclear.

Seems to me they likely began making pennants in the 1930s. The earliest one I can date was from the 1941 Rose Bowl. Their hey day seems to be the late 1940s, early 1950s. As Mark mentioned, they were absolutely huge in terms of market share: pro baseball and football pennants; but also collegiate and high school pennants, too. Most impressively, their pennants were not limited to NYC teams by any stretch; they served the entire nation.

They were a lot like Trench in that respect.

They're quality, however, was nothing like Trench's. By the late 1940s they ceased using labels, tassels; and, their designs were always monochrome. Their artwork, moreover, was super generic. Nothing team-specific. Just the same generic player used over and over again.

Case in point: our "sliding runner" and "the Heisman" series. I never realized these were made by the same maker until I saw these two Brooklyn Dodger pennants. Note the less than perfect lettering; especially the "O" in "DODGERS". It's a bit ... rough. :) Kind of explains why they occasionally fused scraps of felt together to make a spine....

To really solve the mystery, however, we needed one of these pennants from either series to also have a label or maker's mark on them. Last month I came across the Columbia pennant mark highlighted earlier--with an Epstein tag. That sealed the deal for me. I'm only aware of one other from "the Heisman" series with an Epstein label; and it's this Cornell pennant, complete with tassels, just like the Columbia one.

Anyway, mystery solved.

Epstein Novelty Co.
 

As Mark noted, Epstein Novelty Co. also produced a series featuring a punter kicking a football across the length of the pennant. I'm a little hesitant to call it a "series" because there are slight variations in these designs; but, overall, the concept is the same; and, many bear Epstein's label.

Let's name this the "the kicking punter" series :p

The only way that I attempt to help Kyle is by filling up his inbox with email listings every time I see a pennant with a label or some kind of pennant brochure. But I never saw the Columbia pennant. That's all Kyle. I do remember sending him a pic of an Epstein label from a Texas A&M pennant a few years ago, but never thought it would be the maker of these series. So Epstein did make more generic college pennants too.

Kyle- I always thought that the left footed kicker pennants (below) were made by the same company as the runner pennant (now identified as Epstein). But I think you have attributed this style to Trench. I have posted two examples below, with one clearly being older than the other. The older one seems very similar to the Epstein runner pennants with respect to materials and feel. Just wondering how/why you have associated the left footed kicker design with Trench. It's probably too weird for Epstein to have two different kicker versions (given how steadfastly they stuck to the runner and slider designs).

The newer version of the kicker pennant has additional details in the background. I know that these exist for some NFL teams. I think Fballguy has a pic of a Raiders pennant with this image on his website. Santa Clara stopped playing major football in 1952, so the pennant is likely 1952 or earlier. I suppose the two kicker pennants could have been made by different companies, with the newer being a copy.

Great stuff, keep it coming!

Will disagree about the allegedly generic nature of their pennants. At least as far as baseball is concerned. By my count 13 of the 16 teams have alternatives with a team-specific logo. Also many football. They also gave us the highly underrated full body roster pennant …

So, this is "an Epstein"? How you you/we know that?

I wonder if so few labels survived because they were sewn on so hap-hazardly, as on the Columbia pennant?

And, finally, this... My google skills are not up to par with some of you guys, but I found this from September 10, 1938. Check out "Football Novelties." Funny, too, that there's an ad for another maker - Amco.

Finding some info about Epstein Novelty

https://daytoninmanhattan.blogspot.c...65-bowery.html

It also looks like the owner of Epstein Novelty got into some trouble from tax evasion in the 1950s.

https://law.resource.org/pub/us/case...313.11100.html