Incredible 34" x 36" Banner celebrating the 1952 Brooklyn Dodgers' pennant-winning team. The Dodgers won 96 games that season, but lost the World Series in heartbreaking fashion to the crosstown Yankees, with Billy Martin making a game-saving catch with the bases loaded in Game 7 to preserve a 4-2 Yankees victory. 

Banners like this are incredibly rare. Over the years, a handful of similar banners from a variety of years have been offered at auction, with a variety of explanations of where they initially appeared - some say they were hung throughout Brooklyn, others suggest they hung at Ebbets Field. Photographic evidence, however, indicates that they were used to decorate the front of Borough Hall in Brooklyn for the Brooklyn Dodgers welcome celebrations, with three banners backed by cloth bunting decorating a platform, behind which the players and local dignitaries stood during the ceremonies. This photographic evidence would suggest that just three of these banners existed for each celebration.  However, additional evidence - including this very banner - would suggest that some of them were re-used from season to season, with the year updated.

The banner itself is constructed of white cloth, perhaps cotton, with red and blue gradated lettering screened on, proclaiming "Welcome Brooklyn Dodgers 1952 National League Champions." Illustrations of Ebbets Field and the Brooklyn Bridge are inset into the banner as well.

The year 1952 has actually been modified, as this was originally a 1949 banner. The number "49" can be seen simply by turning the banner around and viewing the back.  However, the number has been covered over with a circle of white paint and the number "52" painted on in its place in red (someone scrawled "stitches" onto the circle in pencil, so it resembles a baseball). The number "19" has been touched up with the same red paint, leaving some light smudging around the number.  In researching these banners, we have encountered other examples with similar modifications, leading us to believe that they are even more rare than one would think.

Surviving examples of these banners from every year are extraordinarily rare, with a thread on the Net54 message board suggesting that just 13 examples from 6 years have surfaced at auction. Six of those reside in a private collection that will not be moving any time soon.  

This is a fresh example to the hobby, which has never been sold before. It originates from the collection of Clyde King, who was a pitcher with the 1952 Dodgers and who was present at the ceremony honoring the team. It has been stored away, carefully folded and protected with his belongings.  An incredibly rare piece, celebrating the pennant-winning 1952 Brooklyn Dodgers team, and one of very few surviving examples of similar banners from any year.