Posted By:
MarkInteresting pennant, indeed...
The good news is that it appears significantly older than "late '30s / early '40s". The structure and style are completely in line with oversized pennants of the early teens.
The bad news is that we have no adequate history for the pennant. Who actually declared it to be a Knickerbockers Pennant? What provenance does it have? The "K" alone does not provide adequate evidence.
Even being from the teens, this pennant would still be at least 50 years newer than one from the original Knickerbockers' era. Furthermore, I have never seen evidence that triangular-shaped Pennants were even produced as souvenirs that far back. Does anyone have any evidence of this? I was of the belief that baseball pennants originated around the turn of the century. I guess that Barry's description of a "team flag" could fit this piece, but seems like a longshot.
I was thinking along the same lines as Rob, but this could be a stretch as well. The fact that it was sold at Cooperstown also presents a dilemma... it could well be an old-time throwback of sorts, but the style is that of the teens. So it was either made to just look that way, or it is really from the teens (and represents something else). Wish I could be of more help on this one...