1913 Cravats pennants
 

I have been working on this set since the 90s and just scored the kind of haul you dream about. I landed 6 new ones and 9 upgrades; 3 aren't currently in the catalog either. These are all basically in untouched condition.

As far as cataloged examples are concerned, now I only need Tesreau and Meyers :D

Another 4

And the last of the new pick-ups

4 more

Congrats on that Jackson, I was dreaming about it for a week.

Wow. Way to go Chris. Congrats! You must have been blown away when you found them!

Chris,

Great pick-ups! Care to share more on the find? I'm almost as interested in the details as I am the pennants themselves.

Mike

Congrats on your amazing acquisitions Chris. They look even nicer than the auction photos. Good luck in your pursuit of completing the set.

Great looking pennants, Chris. Congrats. Love 'em!!

Amazing haul...

It was an incredible offering on ebay, and you came away as THE WINNER!

Great stuff and congrats :D

Congrats on the Cravats
 

Many years ago Terry Knouse had a Ira Thomas cravat that looked like the Ainsmith example and looked nothing like the 3 Ira Thomas examples that just appeared on eBay. That kept me from bidding.

Patrick

Thanks everyone! A year or two can pass without a Cravat hitting the market, so this huge group almost gave me a nervous breakdown :)

I really wish I knew more about this set, but I have never found anything on the origin. This group came from an estate sale in NJ. The seller had 29 total, triples of the same pennant in some cases. They also all looked untouched, like someone had sealed them away in 1913 and they haven't seen daylight since. Some of the grommets were almost new looking, bright and untarnished. Such a large and mint cache of a singular set makes me think of the Black Swamp find. I can't help but think their geographical origin must be relatively close to the find. Maybe NJ or NYC?

When I see the word cravat, I think of an article of clothing. I have always wondered if they were something like a department store premium, maybe something given away at the point of sale. Of course, that is all speculation and it could be something completely different. I am hoping a few details will surface someday.

Thanks again for all the kind words!

Chris

Actually most of the pennants I just upgraded originally came from Terry many years ago. He had a large group that had been sewn together to form a circular pattern and the person then trimmed the top edges to make their piece more circular.

What is really incredible is the rarity. Terry said he gave his list of pennants to Bob Lemke, or whomever was editing the big SCD book in the mid 1990s because there were only a few cataloged examples at that time. While I don't know if that is completely accurate or not, I can say that in the 15-20 years that I have owned the group that came from Terry, I was never able to upgrade a single one until this past week.

1997 Cleveland National
 

Chris,

The example I saw that Terry had was probably at the 1997 National in Cleveland. I remember telling him that the cravat looked nothing like Ira Thomas...perhaps it was a Roy Thomas cravat.

Congrats,


Patrick

Congrats Chris,

Glad to see you got the ones you needed! Great haul! The Jackson is awesome.

Thanks Erick! I really appreciate the kind words.

Chris

A truly sweet day for you Chris. Must have been a little nervous making sure those bids would all stick, huh?

Question for you concerning the colors of these. I downloaded the seller's scans from ebay and many look brown that then look dark crimson, red or purple in your scans of the same pennants. What do they look like in hand? Same for some that look dark navy to gray or even black (but with blue specks on the back) on ebay.

Hi Todd,

My scans are really accurate as far as what they look like in-hand. There are two shades or red. I attached examples below. The ones that looked brown in the listings were actually more red than the seller's camera showed. There are also purple, navy/midnight blue, faded red (almost orange), and green.

This is what the Speaker looked like in the listing and here is how is really looks.

Nice job Chris.

Fantastic pickup Chris.....couldn't go to a more deserving Pennant Person!