Hey, pennant guys

[Domer05]

Aw shucks, thanks Erik for the kind words. If the info from my site helps you appreciate pennants more than you already do, then that was precisely my intention.

Someone on this thread once commented that, "Quality control was not necessarily part of the manufacturing process," when these souvenirs were made 50+ years ago. And it's so true. Back then, the artwork was drawn by humans; the felt was cut by hand; and the screen printing process itself ensured a limited degree of variation from one job to the next. Some makers even sold the imperfect stuff for a discount.

Perhaps the biggest area for variation concerns secondary color applications. Most of these 1950s/60s pennants by Trench were screen printed with a white base layer; then air brushed with 3-4 more colors topping that base layer. If the air brusher swiped the gun too fast, or the gun was running low on a certain color, the coloring would come out different from the previous pennant.

I think that's probably why, on your NY Giants pennants, the shoes differ. Clearly the black paint either ran out on the applicator; or else they opted to skip this color in the interest of time, money, etc. I've definitely caught similar variations in other Trench pennants over the years that left me scratching my head.