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Georgia: National flag, 1990-2004

Flag of Georgia, 1990-2004 - Image by Željko Heimer, 9 October 2001

Flag used between 1918 and 1921 (with different ratio) and readopted 14 November 1990, coat of arms adopted 11 December 1990. Flag suppressed 14 January 2004
Ratio: 3:5
Description: Dark red flag with a canton horizontally divided black-white.
Use: on land, as the civil and State flag, at sea, as the civil and State ensign.

Colour approximate specifications (as given in Album des Pavillons [pay00]):

Red: Pantone 209c / CMYK (%) C 0 - M85 - Y 35 - K 50

Law on the flag and construction sheet
The red shade of the flag
Emblem of the state

See also:

Law on the flag and construction sheet

Construction sheet for the flag - Images by Željko Heimer, 9 October 2001

The flag shown in Album des Pavillons is based on a drawing by Jiri Tenora, who wrote (in French):

Geometry of the flag is: An invisible cross divides the field in four quarters which are accordingly smaller than normal quarters.

Armand du Payrat (Editor of Album), 9 October 2001

Another possible construction of the flag - Images by Željko Heimer, 3 August 2000

The website of the Parliament of Georgia includes all Georgian laws, among which the Law of Georgia on the National Flag and Anthem, passed on 14 November 1990 (page no longer available).
The construction sheet attached to the Law clearly shows that the flag ratio is 3:5 and that the canton reaches 2/5 of both length and width of the flag (that is, the vertical canton:field ratio is 2:3, whereas the horizontal black:white:red stripe ratio is 1:1:3).

Jan Zrzavy, 3 August 2000

The red shade of the flag

Encyclopaedia Universalis Yearbook [eunXX] says rouge cornaline, that is "cornelian red". Cornelian is a red agate used in jewelry and lapidary arts.
Dorling-Kindersley Flag Book [rya97] says "deep red", and a few lines after, "crimson". It mentions a "semantic drift" in the interpretation of this national colour, symbolizing in 1918 Georgia's bright past and nowadays also joy.
Talocci (French edition [tal93]), whose general reliability is questionable, shows a flag with a bright red field, and says "red", adding that the new design is probably inspired by the flag of "the former national monarchy". Some of these putative flags are shown here. The colours of the present flag are indeed those of the former feudal states, but certainly not its design, which was created in 1918. A St. George's cross would be expected if Talocci's interpretation were to be correct.
Znamierowski [zna99] states "dogwood red".
Devereux [dev98] has "cherry red".
In the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant of 31 December 1991 it is kersenrood or "cherry red" as well, a different cherry color of course!

Ivan Sache & Jarig Bakker, 23 July 2000

Emblem of the state

Emblem of Georgia, 1990-2004 - after the Shavlego website, 16 September 2005

This is a black and white version of the emblem of Georgia used until 2004. Album des Pavillons showed it and labelled it "emblem of the state", probably because it could not be strictly called a coat of arms.
The emblem is made of a disc inscribed into a seven-pointed star. On the disc is portrayed St. George holding a lance and riding over a mountain.
In the colour version showed by Album, the background of the emblem is purple and the charges are white, except the mountain and the horse tail and mane, which are black. All the decorative elements made of three black lines are filled in yellow (for instance, the spaces between the black lines forming the triangles are filled in yellow). The upper part of the disk is decorated with two big suns/stars and five smaller ones. The smaller suns/stars are eight-pointed, whereas the two bigger ones are 16-pointed.
See a bigger image on the Shavlego website.

Ivan Sache & Ron Lahav, 16 September 2005