Last modified: 2009-03-28 by rob raeside
Keywords: ufe | unidentified flags |
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Do you have any insight into what flag consisting of 6 horizontal stripes,
alternating red and white, with white at the top (i.e. w-r-w-r-w-r) would be
related to the destruction of Speyer by Louis XIV's forces in 1689 (Nine Years
War)? Any insight you can provide would be much appreciated.
Christina
Rosati, 3 January 2009
image by Klaus-Michael Schneider, 5 January 2009
Unknown flag, probably New Zealand
It is a blue ensign of unknown ratio
with a squarish canton of unknown ratio. In the lower fly is a white disc with a
coat of arms. Description of coat of arms: In a blue shield are five red 5-point
stars fimbriated white. The shield is topped by a crown.
Source:
Cigarette
Album: Flags of all Nations; Richmond, Virginia, 1888, edited by cigarette
manufacturers Allen & Ginter
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 5 January 2009
Idle speculation of course, but I wonder if this was meant to be the
representation (however mistaken) of a square colonial blue jack (that is the
jack which could - theoretically at least - be flown by the civilian-manned
ships owned by a colonial administration)?
Christopher Southworth, 5
January 2009
My guess is that it's a misinterpreted design of the Australian state of
Victoria (which was, at that time, a separate colony). Certainly NZ wasn't using
anything. There was a NZ flag of about that era, which had four red stars on a
white disc in the fly, but nothing like the one shown here. Certainly NZ has
never to the best of my knowledge had a flag of any sort with five stars.
James Dignan, 5 January 2009
image by Lespey, 19 January 2009
From your web site, I can't find this flag. I'm sure is Japanese, probably
from WWII but I can't find any info. I'm a Japanese WWII collector of 31 years
and never seen this one.
Lespey, 19 January 2009
image by Donald Shannon, 30 January 2009
I am the curator of the National WWII PT Boat Museum at www.battleshipcove.org. I am
currently researching the origin of a flag I have attached 2 images of the flag.
If you can provide any information on this flag I would greatly appreciate it.
Donald Shannon, 30 January 2009
I have not been able to identify the flag, but I have located a very similar
emblem on this page - the flag of the Merchant
Marine College as at about 1910. It has the same star emblem in red, but not the
circle. Perhaps it is the flag of the college a few years later. Perhaps this
similar design may help others to identify the actual flag in your museum.
Ralph Kelly, 30 January 2009
image by SB Barbosa, 31 January 2009
Would you happen to know where the following flag label pin is from?
SB Barbosa, 31 January 2009
image by Peter Loeser, 7 February 2009
This flag was posted on eBay and the seller says it came from the Tumbling
Waters Flag Museum. It is 27 x 96 (inches). There also seems to be one that has
the fleur de lis in blue and yellow. After several days of looking the best
conclusion I could come up with was NAVA. The scale is wrong on the V... but
NAVA may be the answer.
Peter Lenagh, 7 February 2009
images provided by Jim Megura, 8 February 2009
I am trying to find someone who may have a general knowledge of flag design from
the 17th C. I own an early painting, believed to be 17th C, and it has British
ships and gunships in a harbor, with a large flag visible on the mainland. It is
that flag on the mainland which I am trying to identify, seemingly a major
European port city. We are also trying to then determine if this painting
represents a rendering of some historical event, perhaps an attack or treaty.
Perhaps you can refer to me someone who might have such knowledge. [Large flag
is shown enlarged as inset in photo above.]
Jim
Megura, 8 February 2009
I think I see red in the saltire of the British Union jacks at the bows of the
two ships; that would place the painting post-1801.
Albert S. Kirsch,
11 February 2009
Definitely 18th century, if not early 19th as Al suggested -- not 17th. The
boats in the foreground do not appear to be warships, so this may not be a
military attack on a town.
T.F. Mills, 11 February 2009
The design of the large vessel at the left-hand edge of the painting is late
seventeenth century, say 1670s or 1680s - it has very prominent quarter
galleries picked out in gold, characteristic of English and Dutch ships of the
period. The flag on the fortress does have a Spanish look, although there is a
slim chance - a very slim chance - that it is a regimental colour belonging to
one of the Irish regiments in French service, but that particular regiment was
not serving in a coastal fortress in the period in question. If it were supposed
to be the Mediterranean, I would expect to see more lateen-rigged vessels, but
that's not conclusive.
Ian Sumner, 11 February 2009
Another possibility is that it's either Russian or eastern European, given that
a lot of naval flags from that region are UJ-like designs.
James Dignan,
11 February 2009
Could it be a wrongly depicted Russian jack
and fortress flag (1700-1917)? The usage matches; could this city be Finnish or
Estonian?
António Martins-Tuválkin, 11 February 2009
image by
David Prothero, 12 February 2009
The flag on land forms the hoist of a pennant in the notebook of William Downman,
1685-6. It is reproduced in 'Flags at Sea' by Timothy Wilson, National Maritime
Museum, 1986. The whole pennant is shown above. There does not seem to be any
available information about Cap Presmant.
David Prothero, 12
February 2009
It need not, of course, be a painting that represents an actual event. Marine
painters of the period often painted 'capriccios' - vessels set against
backgrounds which were typically Mediterranean, or typically Dutch, or typically
East Indies, without intending that it should be identified as a particular
place. So this could be a generic battle painting, which may account for the
confusing (or at any rate, unidentifiable to us) details; for if you were
painting an actual event, you had to get the details right, otherwise survivors
of the battle would be quick to tell you where you went wrong. I suspect that if
it was a generic painting, there would be more action, but you never know ...
Ian Sumner, 14 February 2009
One minor indication as to date is the size of the cantons in the red ensigns,
which tended to be smaller during the interregnum of 1649 - 1660.
Christopher Southworth, 16 February 2009
Scattered throughout the site are many other unidentified flags. Here is a partial list if you want to test yourself!