The Pennant

For over 30 years, author Richard English has collected vintage wool-felt pennants.  In late 2018, while attending a dinner in Carmel, CA with a noted restorer of vintage American quilts, he hit upon the idea of having the thousands of pennants and banners in his vast collection cataloged, organized, and, eventually, joined thematically into quilts. 

For this monumental  task, he turned to a Laguna Beach, CA seamstress who had done her training in the haute couture ateliers of Paris.  Their collaboration resulted in 161 quilts, each painstakingly assembled, each unique.

English’s lavishly-photographed and lovingly-written book describes his 30-year journey as a collector and the loving process of transforming these uniquely American signifiers of belonging, achievement, aspiration, and community into genuine works of American folk art.