PENNANT FACTORY
Homemade pennants inspired by designs of the past
The designThroughout the 20th century felt novelty makers sold a popular pennant style I refer to today as a "date pennant." As the name suggests, its principal design element consisted of a decorative sash, emblazoned with a year, slotted through the backfelt in a crescent shape, like a belt woven through the loops of a pair of pants. The sash was made of felt, just like the rest of the pennant, but in a contrasting color. In most cases, the sash bore the four digits of the year the pennant was made. Finally, the bottom edge of the sash was sliced in such a way as to create the appearance of several tassels hanging downward. Date pennants were enormously popular. Collectors today admire them because, apart from their attractive look, they boldly indicate their precise year of production. Many vintage pennants lack this critical information; but on date pennants, there's no disputing their age. And that makes them cool. Date pennants were especially commonplace for souvenir or travel pennants. Wanna remember that trip you took with the family to Washington, D.C. in 1963? Odds are, at some point you passed a gift shop, and stocked somewhere between the collectible shot glasses and spoons was a stack of pennants like the one featured above. By the 1940s, a variation of the date pennant appeared on professional baseball pennants. In the 1960s, thanks to one manufacturer in particular, decorative sashes became increasingly more common on baseball pennants of the day, especially those celebrating a pennant winning team. It's not clear which manufacturer deserves credit for this unique design style. I've looked at hundreds of different date pennants, and it's clear that at least a half dozen different makers used some type of sash to sell pennants during the previous century. That said, the earliest sash pennants I know of are these two below manufactured during World War I by DeMar Mfg. Co., Inc. of Buffalo and Annin & Co. of New York, respectively. Again, I can't say with certainty that either of these companies came up with the design; but these pennants are old, and at 100+ years, they are the oldest date pennants I have seen. And by the decade's end these were two of the biggest felt novelty makers in the business, so it would not surprise me that one of their designers was responsible for creating the date pennant. By the 1920s other felt novelty makers were producing date pennants as well. Here's a few early examples with no apparent maker's marks thereon: This 1925 catalogue from the Schloss Mfg. Co. of Athens, OH illustrates their ability to manufacture date pennants, too: This date pennant was made by Bloom Bros. of Minneapolis, MN: One year later, in 1930, this date pennant was made by The Milbro Corp., also of Minneapolis: Two years after that, in 1932, it appears the same company altered their design, this time featuring a decorative sash that was straight cut--not curved, among other changes: Looks like other manufacturers liked this modification. Here's another straight cut date pennant made two years later by Green Mountain Studios of White River Junction, VT: Finally, here's a date pennant from 1935 by the Beverley Mfg. Co. of Staunton, VA: Up to this point you'll note that most of the above date pennants were either souvenir pennants, or collegiate. I know of no professional sports pennants incorporating decorative sashes made during the first half of the century. By mid-century, that would change. In the late 1940s major league baseball pennants appeared that featured a decorative sash. But unlike any of the prior designs shown above, these sashes were painted on. Have a look at these two examples below: Why paint the sash on? Answer: costs. Date pennants (I personally would learn) were labor intensive. Creating the sash and slotting it through the backfelt was an extra step in the manufacturing process that cost time and money. And by the 1950s, felt novelty makers had taken great strides to simplify this process and thereby boost their profit margins.
As you can see, all of these Trench-made date pennants from the 1960s were used on photo pennants. Moreover, their sashes were secured with one loop, rather than three. Sometimes they maintained the typical look of a sash pennant by only listing the year of production on the sash, as on the above '63 Pirates team pennant. Occasionally Trench listed the roster of a pennant winning team on the sash, much like they did on their scroll pennants. See, for example, this '63 Dodgers pennant below: Trench continued making date/photo pennants into the 1970s before they seem to have retired the design. The newest--and possibly one of the last date pennants ever made--was probably made by Trench in 1980 in support of the Winter Olympic games held in Lake Placid, NY. It looked liked like this: Over a 60+ year run the date pennant became one of the most popular and imitated pennant design styles ever sold. Indeed, we know of at least a half dozen different manufacturers responsible for producing some type of date pennant. But, all good things must come to an end; and, it seems that the date pennant's reign ended a few decades ago. Until now.... The jobI've always wanted to make a date pennant. The nice thing about them is that, because the year of production is so prominently displayed on them, they're great mementos for significant occasions, e.g., family vacation, sporting achievement, etc. I considered re-creating a baseball sash pennant; but, my heart just wasn't in it. To me, what makes this design special is the sentimental attachment one has with the event/moment/accomplishment memorialized in the pennant. And I guess I just didn't have that emotional connection with the 1948 Boston Braves. So I decided to make a date pennant for my three year old niece in recognition of her birth year. It would be modeled on the style of a 1960s souvenir travel pennant. Between the spine and the sash I placed a butterfly, one of her favorite animals. For the text, I wrote her name in a cursive script reminiscent of Trench's pennants made throughout the 1950s and 60s. For the felt, I used three different shades of purple--her favorite color. Finally, for the sash, I inscribed her birth year thereon. The biggest challenge, to my surprise, was creating the sash itself. If not cut perfectly, it won't fit in the loops. The key is to make each slot no longer than it needs to be. Otherwise, it won't hold the sash in place. But, this requires that the sash maintain a uniform width from start to finish. Otherwise, it won't fit through the loops when you attempt to run the sash through them. Finally, the curvature of the sash has to be consistent from start to finish. My first sash was a disaster. I tried to keep its width uniform, and the curvature consistent, but it still came out wompy. The solution was obvious: I needed a template I could place atop my felt to help me cut out a perfectly symmetrical sash. But to make the template, I needed a circular object with the correct size that would result in the precise curve I needed. I tried everything: Frisbees, dinner plates, even the base of a lamp. Nothing quite fit. Then I realized I would actually need two different circular objects, because the inside curve and the outside curve were both different! I was screwed. The solution was a device called a drawing compass. You may remember using one of these back in geometry class. The compass has two ends: one has a sharp point that the device pivots from when placed atop a surface; the other holds a pencil that can be used to draw the precise arc desired atop that surface. First, I placed the pivot end at the bottom left corner of my pennant's spine. This was my pivot point. Second, I placed the pencil end at the first spot along the spine where the sash was to meet it. (The compass has a hinge in middle, so you can adjust the distance between the two ends of the compass accordingly.) Third, I moved the compass over to a piece of paper where I could draw the outline for my template. Fourth, by swinging the pencil end in a downward direction I was able to draw a perfect arc around my pivot point. To make the other edge of the sash template, I simply extended the pencil by the pre-determined width of my sash (for this project, 3") and replicated step four. Now I had a template that could be used to cut out a perfectly made sash that had all the correct specifications for use on my pennant. It looked like this: Using this template I easily cut out a sash from felt that appeared to be uniform in width and curvature. The only question on my mind: would this sash fit? The resultHell yeah it fit! Like a glove. After successfully threading the sash through my three loops, I knew the rest would all fall into place. The felt butterfly came out surprisingly good, especially when you consider I had never made anything like one before. The felt lettering came out sharp, too and oddly reminiscent of a certain Brooklyn Dodgers pennant from 1955 you may have seen before. This pennant was my first attempt at anything close to an original design. After struggling with my sash for as long as I did, I can now appreciate how difficult it would have been for manufacturers to produce this style en masse. Nevertheless, they did. And consumers rewarded their efforts by buying them up over many, many decades. I sure hope my niece enjoys this one!
Note: All unquoted material on these pages is © 2019 K.R. Biebesheimer & Son. All rights reserved. Short excerpts may be used after written permission obtained and proper credit is given. ♦♦
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AuthorIn 2018 I started a separate website called Pennant Fever dedicated to 20th century felt novelty manufacturers. It focuses on these companies' history, products, etc. Eventually, my interest in these businesses inspired me to start making my own pennants. THIS site you're currently viewing, Pennant Factory, is where I'll showcase some of the felt projects I've taken on. Most are reproductions of real pennants once for sale to the public. I've done my best to re-create the originals as authentically as possible based upon surviving photos, known dimensions, etc. Others are my original work, intended to look like the styles of yesteryear. Some turned out better than others. See for yourself. Enjoy! -KRB Projects:
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