Pennant materials

[Domer05]

I agree with the collective sentiments of this thread: unless there's a date on the pennant, all you can do is make an educated guess as to when it was made. Thankfully, due to the work put-in by people on this thread, and the information we've been able to share with each other through forum's like N54, we can make much stronger guesses today. Egner's book started all of this. He got us out of the Dark Ages. Rob's terrific website built on that info and moved us into the Renaissance Era!

I personally do not put much stock in the type of material used when trying to identify a pennant's manufacturer. In my experience, most of the big producers during the 1940s through 1970 experimented with different substrates. Some of it was thick; some of it was thin. Some of it was plush; some of it was stiff. Although I think these characteristics are occasionally useful in dating a pennant ... it's hard for me to touch a pennant and say, "Yup, this feels like an ADFLAG." But that's just me.

For me, I put much more stock in re-occurring artwork; distinctive letter fonts; and of course, maker's marks. Another really useful indicator: the presence of tassels or not (some makers, like ADFLAG, never used tassels).

Finally, one last comment about pennant artwork not appearing period-appropriate.... In my observations, this was particularly common concerning football pennants. People see a 1960s ADFLAG pennant featuring a football player wearing a helmet, sans face mask ... so they conclude: "Ah ha, must be from the 1940s!" But not so fast.

Why? The artists that drew these scenes hated face masks. That's because single bar helmets, which players from that era may have been wearing, obscure the players' facial features, which the artist hoped to depict. The answer: remove the face masks from the helmet. Go back and look at the 1960s-era football pennants on Rob's site ... many convey the raw emotions of the player being depicted (looking tough, looking confident, looking jubilant, looking defeated, etc.). You wouldn't see any of this if it was covered by a face mask.

So, don't assume these pennants were reproductions. The artists just wanted to make their pennants more interesting, and that vintage look from yesteryear served that purpose.