Hey, pennant guys

[Domer05]

Originally Posted by vintagesportscollector

I came across this add from 1910 stating the the Fatima pennants were a "hand-sewn felt pennant", which which would seem to indicate they are not the B54 rugs, but rather your traditional college pennants with sewn on letters. If that's the case, I have never seen a tag or marking on a large pennant from Fatima or Liggett & Meyers. Have others?

I wonder where L&M sourced their pennants, and if they ever put their own tag or stamping on the reverse. Since they offered for over 100 colleges, etc., it would seem they sourced from a larger pennant manufacturer.

Joe, I completely agree with you. Until your earlier post, I had always assumed that the promo items offered by Fatima Cigarettes ca. 1910 were limited to pennant-like items, e.g., leather squares embossed with an image of a school's pennant, or felt "rugs" with an illustration of same. I had no reason to think they offered full-size, sewed letter pennants. Apparently, they did, as per these advertisements you've unearthed. Nice work!

As to your latest post, I too am now wondering where they sourced their pennants from. My best guess is these promo pennants had no mark at all on them. If they had read "Smoke Fatima Cigarettes" on the reverse, we'd have surely come across such a distinctive mark.

It's an odd thing to have a promo pennant series with no branding whatsoever thereon. Isn't the whole point to promote sales of their products? The Ferguson Bakery (BF3) promo pennant series from ca. 1916 was mostly unbranded; however, their premiums had at least a maker's mark on the reverse (Bradford & Co.). On the other hand, The Detroit Free Press promo pennant series from ca. 1913 included a label on the reverse reading "Detroit Free Press." Adding a label or screening an extra mark would have added to the production costs, so maybe that's why Fatima didn't mark their pennants with their branding, as they did with their premium "rugs" (which could be easily stamped with their branding)?

If you're curious, here's the premium "rug" Fatima issued for Notre Dame....