Hey, pennant guys

[Domer05]

Originally Posted by UKCardGuy

Thanks Jason. My questions about the Tigers pennant were down to the quality of it's construction. The uneven cut, the wavy stitching on the spine stood out to me. but the font and the tigers head looked good to me. The fact that the listing mentioned homemade and not hand-made, was another question for me.

I'd like to be educated about the early manufacturing processes if anyone has insight. For early pennants like Greg's Cubs and White Sox examples, I'm guessing these have been made on some sort of manufacturing process even if that was a single room in a shop somewhere? Sewing machines were in wide use by 1905 so I'm guessing these wouldn't have been hand stitched. Is that correct?

Put me in the camp that thinks the Tigers pennant is genuine and unaltered.

Although I understand the temptation for unscrupulous sellers to doctor their collectibles, when it comes to pennants, I think that occurs far less frequently than we all think. The earliest pennants, say from ca. 1910s, were mostly hand made. The felt was cut by hand with scissors using crude templates; then sewn together at lightning speed by a seamstress using a sewing machine. There was variation from one pennant to the next.

For those makers that screen printed their pennants, you saw similar inconsistencies. Sometimes the stencil carrier was in perfect register; and sometimes, not so much. When secondary colors were applied using an airbrush, you saw even more variations. Nobody really cared about quality control, so most of these "inferior" products were sold with the very best of their stock.

For instance, I often hear collectors ID a pennant's tip as doctored because the graphics don't quite line up with the center axis of the pennant. Sure, that's possible ... but more likely: the stencil was not in perfect register with the felt when they screened it. Having screen printed one or two pennants, I can tell you from experience this is really easy to do.

Blunted or squared tips? Yeah, the consumer could've caused this; but, just as likely the pennant left the factory that way on account of the screen printer placing their stencil too close to the edge of the felt roll.

With this Tigers pennant, note that it's of two-piece construction. That means the felt cutter had to get the top and bottom slope/angles of both pieces just right for the pennant to fit correctly. I think he/she may have missed the mark on one piece is all. If I had to guess, he/she cut the orange head-end too short; then tried to alter the black tail-end midway through the cut so it would come together better.

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Domer05

Put me in the camp that thinks the Tigers pennant is genuine and unaltered.

Although I understand the temptation for unscrupulous sellers to doctor their collectibles, when it comes to pennants, I think that occurs far less frequently than we all think. The earliest pennants, say from ca. 1910s, were mostly hand made. The felt was cut by hand with scissors using crude templates; then sewn together at lightning speed by a seamstress using a sewing machine. There was variation from one pennant to the next.

For those makers that screen printed their pennants, you saw similar inconsistencies. Sometimes the stencil carrier was in perfect register; and sometimes, not so much. When secondary colors were applied using an airbrush, you saw even more variations. Nobody really cared about quality control, so most of these "inferior" products were sold with the very best of their stock.

For instance, I often hear collectors ID a pennant's tip as doctored because the graphics don't quite line up with the center axis of the pennant. Sure, that's possible ... but more likely: the stencil was not in perfect register with the felt when they screened it. Having screen printed one or two pennants, I can tell you from experience this is really easy to do.

Blunted or squared tips? Yeah, the consumer could've caused this; but, just as likely the pennant left the factory that way on account of the screen printer placing their stencil too close to the edge of the felt roll.

With this Tigers pennant, note that it's of two-piece construction. That means the felt cutter had to get the top and bottom slope/angles of both pieces just right for the pennant to fit correctly. I think he/she may have missed the mark on one piece is all. If I had to guess, he/she cut the orange head-end too short; then tried to alter the black tail-end midway through the cut so it would come together better.

Well, whether the original felt cutter did it, or a one-time owner, the jagged cut is atypical for this series. These were very well made for their time, and I have never seen another example that fell so far short in terms of missing felt.

[UKCardGuy]

Thanks Kyle. That's great info.

[vintagesportflips]

Hey everybody,
It’s been a while since I posted in this thread, mainly because it’s been a while since I added any Eagles pennants to my collection. However a couple months ago I started a YouTube channel of picking sports memorabilia/ antiques etc at flea markets and elsewhere. My newer video deals with a massive 30,000 pennant collection a buddy and I recently purchased. Unfortunately there’s not much in the way of early baseball or football pennants in the group, but I’ve only looked through about 10% so far. These are mostly organized by state and there are some sports and college mixed in these boxes too, so time will tell if any hidden gems are in there. The stuff I show in the video are mainly sports only boxes though. Just figured some of you might enjoy looking at the collection.

https://youtu.be/UMq9Cqn73GI

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by kjjavic

Hey everybody,
It’s been a while since I posted in this thread, mainly because it’s been a while since I added any Eagles pennants to my collection. However a couple months ago I started a YouTube channel of picking sports memorabilia/ antiques etc at flea markets and elsewhere. My newer video deals with a massive 30,000 pennant collection a buddy and I recently purchased. Unfortunately there’s not much in the way of early baseball or football pennants in the group, but I’ve only looked through about 10% so far. These are mostly organized by state and there are some sports and college mixed in these boxes too, so time will tell if any hidden gems are in there. The stuff I show in the video are mainly sports only boxes though. Just figured some of you might enjoy looking at the collection.

https://youtu.be/UMq9Cqn73GI

Wow!

I'm having trouble finding your ebay store. Can you provide a link?

[vintagesportflips]

Here you go: https://www.ebay.com/str/antiquesportsshop

A link should be in the description of the YouTube video to my and my buddy’s accounts I believe as well.

[ooo-ribay]

Originally Posted by kjjavic

Here you go: https://www.ebay.com/str/antiquesportsshop

A link should be in the description of the YouTube video to my and my buddy’s accounts I believe as well.

Got it. Thanks! I gotta see if you have any Giants minor league….and hope I can beat bocca to anything good!