Hey, pennant guys

perezfan · #1 12-19-2019, 11:40 AM

It certainly wasn't an exact science back then. I think they just took whatever lots of felt were available at the time (or for the best price), and then went to town. The material was relatively cheap, and likely had some variances from shipment to shipment.

Regarding the size variance, there's a good chance that the image was simply printed a little further down on the pennant, in the case of the second one. That would explain the larger gap between the spine an the graphics. You may say that the first one is still larger... but the second one is clearly altered/trimmed, so we don't really know how big it was in its original state.

Tough to put these shadowy thoughts in writing, but hopefully you get the gist of it. Pennants of this era were not cut with precision, like cards or team-issued photos. Some of these pennants came from street vendors who probably never even got inside the stadium. So there were some definite potential variances. I have lots of unaltered duplicates from the 1940s - 50s that differ in size quite a bit (just like your Giants example).

Eager to hear others' thoughts as well!

perezfan · #2 12-19-2019, 11:48 AM

Greg...

Thanks for posting those... the Athletics Pennants are off the charts cool. In the very early days, I think even the Tigers took a back seat to the A's with their White Elephant Mascot. I bet that a couple of those pennants could be lone survivors. Great stuff!

Fballguy · #3 12-19-2019, 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by perezfan

but the second one is clearly altered/trimmed, so we don't really know how big it was in its original state.

Just curious Mark...What leads you to believe it was trimmed? I thought the tip looked artificially sharp but being felt maybe it just wore down that way. Anything else?

perezfan · #4 12-19-2019, 02:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fballguy

Just curious Mark...What leads you to believe it was trimmed? I thought the tip looked artificially sharp but being felt maybe it just wore down that way. Anything else?

Oh sorry Rob.... my wording was bad, as is often the case when I'm hurrying.

Regarding the more recent one with the orange spine, it looks to be altered at the extreme tip. What you commonly see is that someone took a scissors to it, to re-sharpen the tip (forming an un-natural point). Many times, these were yanked off the wall (by a Mom or when the kid went off to college, etc). Very often, the tack or nail holding the tip would remain in the wall, and take a chunk of felt with it.

It's very common, and often collectors/sellers will try to re-sharpen the blunted/torn tip by trimming it into an artificial point. When this is done, the pennant can lose well over an inch in length. I am 99% sure that's what happened with Marc's newer orange-spined Giants Pennant.

Another thing to note (which Greg alluded to) is that many of these vintage pennants were manufactured with a blunt point. You can tell if you've seen enough of them. Its a natural look, that's hard to define in writing. But I still remember getting a Braves Pennant at Crosley Field in 1968 with a very blunt tip. I'd estimate that about 15% were just made that way.

Hope this helps to better explain it!

thetahat · #5 12-19-2019, 12:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by perezfan

It certainly wasn't an exact science back then. I think they just took whatever lots of felt were available at the time (or for the best price), and then went to town. The material was relatively cheap, and likely had some variances from shipment to shipment.

Regarding the size variance, there's a good chance that the image was simply printed a little further down on the pennant, in the case of the second one. That would explain the larger gap between the spine an the graphics. You may say that the first one is still larger... but the second one is clearly altered/trimmed, so we don't really know how big it was in its original state.

Tough to put these shadowy thoughts in writing, but hopefully you get the gist of it. Pennants of this era were not cut with precision, like cards or team-issued photos. Some of these pennants came from street vendors who probably never even got inside the stadium. So there were some definite potential variances. I have lots of unaltered duplicates from the 1940s - 50s that differ in size quite a bit (just like your Giants example).

Eager to hear others' thoughts as well!

I noticed this even with the Collegiate pennants which were probably the highest-end made back then. My Yankees pennant seems to have Uncle Sam very close to the spine, much more so than on the two or three others I've seen (including your new pickup). It looks like a difference of almost a whole inch or so. But then there is more room to spare by the tip. It's just imperfection in printing or cutting I guess, like on mine the whole design was moved to the left.

perezfan · #6 12-19-2019, 02:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by thetahat

I noticed this even with the Collegiate pennants which were probably the highest-end made back then. My Yankees pennant seems to have Uncle Sam very close to the spine, much more so than on the two or three others I've seen (including your new pickup). It looks like a difference of almost a whole inch or so. But then there is more room to spare by the tip. It's just imperfection in printing or cutting I guess, like on mine the whole design was moved to the left.

Yeah.... the guy in charge of cutting and screening these was probably making about 35 cents per hour. Some are amazingly exact and consistent, but others have some definite variance.

Since these pennants cost under a buck back in the day, I don't think the attention to detail was always stellar. But that's part of why I love them so much. They're all just a bit different, and oozing with personality. Today's "stiff as a board" pennants are all precisely the same size, but that's not much fun, is it? And today's boring/generic/corporate logos cannot hold a candle to those of the past!

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