Hey, pennant guys

[perezfan]

The distance between the two sets of tassels and the raised velvet graphics are the two biggest tipoffs that it's a Mitchell and Ness. The graphics should be painted/screened on, and not soft to the touch. The paint should show some evidence of cracking, rippling, puckering or other general effects of age.

Other factors become more apparent when you touch it / have it in your hands... the style of stitching (where the spine is applied) the limp composition of the felt, and the design itself, among other things.

When you've seen enough of these M&N Pennants, you know immediately. Still, some inevitably make it into Catalog Auctions, like any other decent reproduction (Ad Signs, Lemon Peel Balls, Autographs, Reprint Cards, etc.)

[perezfan]

I suppose it's cool that people can own a Seals Pennant for a fraction of the "vintage cost"... But I still wish they'd stop making these near-exact copies of the originals. Or they could simply print their company logo on the reverse side.

The way they are currently sold is with a paper hang-tag that ebay sellers "conveniently" like to tear off... leaving no evidence that these are repros. Here is the way that Seals Pennant was originally packaged...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yankees-CLAS...cAAOSwfpVZInYz

And here's one that actually snuck into the last Huggins & Scott (before they removed it...)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MITCHELL-NES...8AAOSwqJRZpCg0

[Fballguy]

Originally Posted by perezfan

I suppose it's cool that people can own a Seals Pennant for a fraction of the "vintage cost"... But I still wish they'd stop making these near-exact copies of the originals. Or they could simply print their company logo on the reverse side.

The way they are currently sold is with a paper hang-tag that ebay sellers "conveniently" like to tear off... leaving no evidence that these are repros. Here is the way that Seals Pennant was originally packaged...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Yankees-CLAS...cAAOSwfpVZInYz

And here's one that actually snuck into the last Huggins & Scott (before they removed it...)

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MITCHELL-NES...8AAOSwqJRZpCg0

I'm with you Mark. It's really annoying. Mitchell & Ness put their label on their jerseys, why not their pennants? I'll never buy anything of theirs for this reason and always include '-Ness" in my eBay searches.

Just checked out their website and they currently don't offer any pennants. When did they produce these? Did they only do baseball?

[Duluth Eskimo]

Mark,
That White Sox one is one of about 3 that I see regularly trying to be passed off for original. That one seems to be the lest obvious or so people think. I'm sure you see the same as me.

[bocca001]

Thanks, Mark. Based on those other two, it looks like Mitchell and Ness for sure. That was what I was looking for.

I have seen "raised felt" (or something like it) on vintage college pennants (see the Alabama and Santa Clara pennants), but never on a baseball pennant. Although, again, I am no true expert. Does anyone have a real vintage baseball pennant with raised felt?

The Seals pennant cost me all of $15 and I suspected that it was repro all along. I think I'll add it to my son's room (see below), which I've somehow managed to fill with pennants....

[ooo-ribay]

I like those posters! ^^^^

Board member andypcl shared a picture of his real Seals pennant with me...

[yankeesjetsfan]

I love this thread. I have learned more about pennants from you guys then I ever knew.

Mike

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by bocca001

Thanks, Mark. Based on those other two, it looks like Mitchell and Ness for sure. That was what I was looking for.

I have seen "raised felt" (or something like it) on vintage college pennants (see the Alabama and Santa Clara pennants), but never on a baseball pennant. Although, again, I am no true expert. Does anyone have a real vintage baseball pennant with raised felt?

The Seals pennant cost me all of $15 and I suspected that it was repro all along. I think I'll add it to my son's room (see below), which I've somehow managed to fill with pennants....

Good buy on the Seals... sure it's a repro, but a very good one for $15.

As for the others with raised velvet.... also often called crushed velvet or "flocking" by some... Yes, it was a common practice for college pennants, especially during the 1940s-50s. Some beautiful examples have been posted in this thread (many by Matt Z.). Same process as for the rectangular College Banners posted above. But I am not aware of any Baseball examples, outside of the 4 great 3D pennants (Brooklyn, Giants, Yankees, Red Sox) which appear earlier in this thread.

I'm away from the computer, but perhaps someone can throw up a photo or two of those 3-D beauties. Other than those four, I believe ALL Baseball Pennants had painted/screened-on graphics.

[thetahat]

Mark, yes, the 3-D pennants have print with a felt-like texture to it, but it does crack. I have 1960s picture pennants (Orioles and Phillies) with the same type print, and also this otherwise common 60s Phillies pennant. All have felt graphics. The 3-D pennants were Collegiate and these other ones are, to the best of my knowledge, Trench.

(I have pics to send, including Yankees and Giants 3-D, but for some reason this isn't allowing me to attach them, something about a missing security token.)

[thetahat]

Mitchell and Ness actually started my pennant addiction. Around 1996 or so the company used to run a 50% off sale in their old Philly on Super Bowl weekend. They did it for a few years. Anyway that's where and when I bought about a dozen of their early repros. I thought they looked cool and I still had my "original" ones from going to Phillies games in the 70s and 80s as a kid. At the store they had some vintage pennants displayed on the walls, including a Phillies "Blue Jay" pennant, and I thought they looked better. Eventually, I came to want only the real ones, and then I discovered eBay.