Last modified: 2010-02-27 by pete loeser
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Identification Key:
= Positive ID (Positive Identification)
= Tentative ID (Tentative Identification)
= Some Speculation
Image by Jennifer Leslie
Please help me identify this flag.
Jennifer Leslie, 7 January 2007
Could you please identify a flag on a uniform button as follows (if possible). The button is 22.5 mm diameter two-piece gilt spun back with the makers name Firmin, London on the back. It has a roped edge with an grommet inside that.- Lined background. The flag itself is a pennant on which is a diamond shape. On the diamond are the letters C & S. Unfortunately no colours are shown apart from the fact that the diamond has a deckled finish usually indicating in heraldic convention terms the colours of either yellow or orange. s a committee member of the British Button Society and a collector of shipping buttons for many years, I have had few problems in identifying the majority of buttons that come my way but this one really has me beaten - I had thought maybe a yacht or boat club burgee but somehow I don't think so. Unfortunately the backmark used by Firmin covers a number of years so pinning it down to a particular period is difficult- all I can suggest is that it could be any time post WW1 up to just after WW2 (early 50's).
Ian Scott, 9 January 2007
Some Speculation
Image provided by Nelson Schmitt
I picked this flag up at an estate sale. I'm pretty sure it's Japanese and most likely WWII era. The previous owner was a WWII collector and dealer. Do you have any idea what flag it could be? I'm not even sure which way is up or whether it is flopped the right way. The top of the image is where it fastens to the pole but I don't know if it hangs down or outwards. Japanese flags seem to hang both ways.
Nelson Schmitt, 10 January 2007
Image mirrored, distorted, and rotated by EFE Editor
If we rotate the image, a plowshare and joined cross appear. I feel this is too specific for having been an ornamental banner.
Jan Mertens, 12 January 2007
Positive ID
Images by John Gorto
Can you help identify any of these badges? I think the "A" is Alaska Shipping, but the rest are unknown to me.
John Gorto, 7 February 2007
The blue flag with white cross and red diamond is Isthmian Steamship Co..
Alaska SS Co. is also correct.
Jan Mertens, 8 February 2007
Blue flag with red R on white diamond is C. Rowbotham & Sons (Management) Ltd. GB. From Stewart's 1963 Flags and Funnels.
David Prothero, 8 February 2007
The white burgee with a letter P is reminiscent of the pilot's flag used by Argentine pilot's c 1928. This latter was white, without swallow tails, and bore a blue letter P. It is possible, therefore, that this is a pilot's badge.
Lesley Prince, 9 February 2008
USBF stands for United States Bureau of Fisheries. (It also stands for United States Bridge Federation and United States Bocce Federation, but I don't think these run shipping lines). Interesting there is a china plate listed on EBay
with the initials USBF and what appears to be a flag as well.
Lesley Prince, 9 February 2008
The white swallowtail with a black "P". Is this not Panama Railroad Steamship Co. [Panama Steamship Co. and Panama Line] as shown on the page "House Flags of US Shipping Companies :
P?"
Neale Rosanoski, 18 October 2008
I collect flag pins and recently acquired one interesting pin. It's a triangular flag - there's a red disc in the middle and blue rays on white background. If it were red rays I'd say the flag was Japanese. But this has left me in wonder.
Bojan Kotur, 8 February 2007
Image by Steve Conroy
I've been searching and even thought I had a good lead with an Italian line, but no matches. Anything like this in your House Flag memory?
Steve Conroy, 15 February 2007
Image by Rob Raeside
I recently bought a painting of a sailing ship (see this photo), which as you can see is a merchantman built, I imagine, about 1850. I'm not a sailor, even less an historical naval architect, and have no idea from the look of the ship where it might have been built or owned. Nevertheless I would like to know a little more about it, particularly whose house-flag is flying at the mast redrawn above. [The flag on the painting is not clearly identifiable, but I have been assured closer examination reveals it as shown here. - editor]
Rodney Russell, 28 February 2007
Positive ID
Images provided by Anita Russell, 12 November 2007
I am trying to identify some shipping line flags but 2 are being very elusive.
Anita Russell, 12 November 2007
The 1st is N.J. Goulandris Ltd. being one of the "London Greeks". Most sources do not show an edging to the pennant but US Navy 1961 does except none at the hoist. I presume that the black look to the china image indicates a dark
blue. The 2nd is Odd Godager & Co. of Oslo shown Brown 1958 & 1978.
Neale Rosanoski, 18 October 2008
Some Speculation
Image by Alan Rae, 5 March 2007
I am trying to identify two flags, which are shown on a pack of playing cards I bought while in Germany. The playing cards were made in Austria and judging from the styles of pictures on the cards they were probably photographed in the
thirties or forties. I have gone through your web pages and the flags have similar colouring to those of Hungary and Austria, but I could not find a match and I imagine that there was a considerable redrafting of flags in Europe in first half of the twentieth century. I have attached a scan of the flags and would appreciate any pointers you could give me to help me trace the flags and a period.
Alan Rae, 5 March 2007
I suspect that these are generic designs so chosen as not to be any national flag of the time.
Rob Raeside, 5 March 2007
These might be supposed to be the flags of USA and Bolivia. The US-flag was simplified to just 13 stripes without the blue canton and the stars. The white stripe in the Bolivian flag may be just a printing error.
J. Patrick Fischer, 6 March 2007
The red-white striped flag has thirteen stripes similar to the Merchants Flag of the American colonies, but the stripe width is not consistent.
Pete Loeser, 12 December 2009
Some Speculation
Speculative Image by Peter Loeser, 19 December 2009
I was writing to ask if you know a flag with three vertical stripes: green, yellow, black. There is a feather with a quill to the left and the tip of the feather to the right crossing all three colors horizontally. The man I met was out canvassing asking me if I knew Jesus. He was wearing a hat that reminded me of people who are around the ocean/fishermen, like the character from Gilligans Island, White Cap. He was an older gentlemen and spoke with bit of brogue like from North Carolina Outer Banks accent. Much appreciate any thoughts you may have?
Scott Spearman, 11 March 2007
It sounds like the Native-American Vietnam Vet flag, however, the stripes don't match to what was described. See
http://www.spiritconnectionstore.com/images/vietflagW1.jpg.
Darryl W. Perry, 12 March 2007
Image by Claude and Bernard Sache, 9 April 2007
The attached photograph was taken by my parents last year in the Bukhara History and Local Lore Museum, housed in the Ark Citadel. The flag is shown in a window together with old weapons; there is no caption and nobody there was able
to say anything on the flag. The flag is green (most probably, in spite of looking black) with a red border and white charges, from left to right, the left hand of Fatima, horizontal and pointing to the hoist; a crescent pointing to the hoist; and three stars in a triangle, one "inside" the crescent and the two other ones placed vertically near the flag fly. The stars seems to point to the upper left corner of the flag but this is not sure since the flag is partially folded. These charges are also shown on the flag of the
Emir of Bukhara from the early XXth century.
Bernard Sache, 9 April 2007
I have purchased a silk flag that I have been unable to identify. It is 6ft. x 3ft., burgundy back ground with a shield in the center (light green color) with scissors on the shield and a lion above the shield. Surrounding the shield on both sides branches with large leaves that resemble holly leaves (green and gold) and at the top of this branch it resembles a poppy flower. There is a union jack in the upper left corner. At the bottom of the flag the date 1832 is embroidered. In the lower left corner, embroidered, is the name John Campbell, 1838. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Sharon, forwarded by Al Kirsch, 15 April 2007
Positive ID
Image submitted by Howard Martin, 19 July 2007
Can you give me any idea as to what this flag may be? I have reason to link it to civil war survivor Reuben C Eldridge, Second Sargeant, 12th Iowa Volunteer Infantry, Company F. He was also a native of Ohio.
Howard Martin, 19 July 2007
The Puerto Rico-like flag with six stars and five stripes submitted by Howard Martin is the Industrial Honor Flag of the Third Liberty Loan, as in the latest NAVA News.
David, 27 July 2008
Some Speculation
Image seen on eBay by Bill Garrison, 15 April 2007
Seen on eBay - listed as "Flag, Russia, Civil War (1920s?), Regiment?" What is
this?
Bill Garrison, 15 April 2007
I'm not an expert on the subject but after a quick look at the Cyrillic alphabet, there doesn't seem to be an "inverted C" or "N" as on the flag so it is probably another alphabet.
Marc Pasquin, 15 May 2007
There certainly isn't an inverted C, Neither is there an "I", although that is used in some Cyrillic-influenced scripts such as Ukrainian and (IIRC) Serbian. for some reason (possibly the costumes of the people on the flag) I suspect it's actually Balkan rather than Russian.
James Dignan, 15 May 2007
It has flipped letters, so it must be Russian. Much simpler than do a quick search for "reversed C" and learn all about the "Ɔ"/"ɔ", which is BTW a kind of "o". This letter is used in many orthographies, especially in Africa (see e.g.
http://www.bakweri.com/2004/03/the_mokpe_alpha.html), and therefore call it "African UFE" would be a better hint. I would guess that this is one of those relatively rare canton-less Fante Asafo _frankaa_ (see Asafo company flags), but I may be wrong. Note that there's question marks for the date and regiment, not for the spurious and baseless attribution to Russia.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 16 April 2007
This flag has a text in Ashanti (Ghanese language) starting with "PONKO ABODAM" which means Crazy Horse (according to
http://prempeh.org/points/houses.html).
Sven S, 26 September 2008
Images by Rob Raeside
I recently came across two flags that I was told were possibly WWII Naval Japanese flags. They are supposed to be some sort of signal flags from what I was told.
Rick Thompson, 5 May 2007
Image located by Ned Smith, 20 May 2007
The Nov 27, 2006, online edition of Christian Post has an article on the small Protestant congregation in Turkey. Included in the article is a photo of what is described as "a Protestant flag" next to the Turkish flag. www.christianpost.com/article/20061127/23701.htm. The flag is white, with 2 adjoining squares in the center, outlined in black. Both boxes have white backgrounds. In the square toward the hoist side is a black Latin cross, with a gold shroud draped over the cross piece and passing in front of the upright. Surrounding the top of the upright are red flames. The square toward the fly side bears within it a 4-part logo, consisting of four smaller black-bordered squares, arranged into an intermediated sized square. Starting at the top, fly side (which is on the viewer's left in this photo) and going clockwise:
Some Speculation
Photo by Robert Dean, 16 June 2007
I have recently bought a watercolour, mid 19 century, of a yacht flying the White Ensign (post 1801) save that the vertical bar of the St George's Cross is blue, not red. The vessel also has a Flag Officer's pennant with the blue
vertical bar, and otherwise a red cross on a white background. Any ideas? Many thanks.
Robert Dean, 16 June 2007
I have no information about a White Ensign with a blue vertical arm on the St George's Cross (and no burgees of current yacht clubs appear show such a device), however, various White Ensigns of the St George's type were in use by yacht clubs between 1829 and 1842. According to Perrin (PP 137-9) The Royal Yacht Club (later the Royal Yacht Squadron of course) received a Warrant in 1829 and still flies the White Ensign, while the Royal Western, the Royal Thames, the Royal Southampton, the Royal Eastern and the Gibraltar Yacht Club had their's withdrawn on 22 July 1842. Due to an oversight the Royal Western Yacht Club of Ireland was missed and continued to fly theirs (which had a crown and wreath of shamrock in the centre) until 1859.
Christopher Southworth, 20 June 2007
The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania's burgee is white with a bi-colour St George's cross. In this case it is the vertical arm that is red and the horizontal arm that is blue, with a crown at the centre of the cross. The club was founded in 1880 as the Derwent Yacht Club. It was not granted the title "royal" until 1910, so it is unlikely that the burgee bore a crown before that, and it may possibly have differed in other ways.
David Prothero, 22 June 2007
Positive ID
Image by Rob Raeside
I am trying to identify a flag that is rectangular with equal sized white blue yellow vertical stripes top half then red yellow red equal sized horizontal stripes bottom half. Can you help?
Albert Kirsch, 16 May 2007
This seems to be a mix of Canary Islands' flag (top) and Spain's flag (bottom). Notice that Canary Islands is part of Spain.
José Luis González, 10 October 2007
This is a mix between the Canarian and Spanish flag, used by people against Canarian independentism.
Alejandro Salamanca, 8 July 2008
I have several new flags that I don't know what they are. Can you help please? They are all 100% cotton 2' x 3', and they have a number RN32335.
Image by Rob Raeside
I am looking at flag on Mettloch German beer stein that is red and white-red stripe diagonally forms an red X with red star in leftquarter. Any idea what it stands for?
Lutzdk, 12 June 2007
Some Speculation
Image by Michael Skowitz, 13 Feb 2007
I have a particular flag (3`x5`) that was given to me by a friend in the military who served in Germany, where he bought the flag. Neither he nor I know what it is but upon researching the FOTW site we have found that the black,
white, red was the old German flag and the flag perhaps could be a reference to old Germany. The flag has a cross on it. I have recreated the flag, and enclosed in the email an image of it. I would be grateful of any help.
Michael Skowitz, 13 Feb 2007
It might be a proposal for a warflag of the North German Federation (Norddeutscher Bund) drawn by Prince Adalbert. You can see five similar examples on p.65 of source but not this one. Source: Jörg-M. Hormann; Dominik Plaschke: "Deutsche Flaggen Geschichte, Tradition, Verwendung", Bielefeld/Hamburg 2006; ISBN 3-89255-555-5
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 12 June 2007
I am pretty sure that it is nothing like this. All the proposals by Prince Adalbert are different, usually including fimbriated crosses. Furthermore, I don't think that one can buy these flags in cloth form anywhere. The size information given by the original contributor does give me suspicions, too (3'x5'): we don't produce flags by feet. For an identification we would certainly need a good photograph of the flag, more information of the provenance and some idea of the flagmaker (some stamp somewhere, for instance).
Marcus Schmöger, 12 July 2007
Positive ID
Image provided by Lee Andrews, 27 July 2007
I wish to identify a Shipping Line house flag. The flag is white, with a blue cross, red diamond, and a crown.
Lee Andrews, 27 July 2007
Image from David Prothero, 17 January 2010
This appears to be the flag, probably obsolete, of the Royal Yachting Association. The current flag appears to be their logo on white
David Prothero, 17 January 2010
Speculative Image by Pete Loeser, 19 January 2010
I briefly saw a flag I'm trying to identify, it was all yellow with a red cross crossing it and in the top right corner was some sort of green emblem. Any ideas what type of flag it could be?
Submitted to Albert S. Kirsch as an All Experts question, 31 July 2007
Submitted by Kelli Ann Hartmann, 1 August 2007
It is a white rectangle that has royal blue, orange, and yellow. The orange and blue start on the left side on opposite corners and slightly curve in all the way to the end. It reminds me of asymptotes on a graph, or of the base of a torch. The yellow starts almost right after the orange and blue on the left side, but it is between the two colors, and goes all the way to the other side.
Kelli Ann Hartmann, 1 August 2007
Positive IDs
Image submitted by Kathleen Audet, 3 August 2007
I have been trying to identify the three flags on this gold encrusted cup and saucer set manufactured by the Cauldon China Company of England and distributed by Higgins and Seiter of New York. The name of the boat/ship is hard to read -
preceded by Q. Was told Q Ships were disguised as merchantmen but actually armed. Or does the Q mean Queen. The name after the Q appears to be something like Coranter or Corunter. The Cauldon pattern number Z 2824 appears on the bottom.
Kathleen Audet, 3 August 2007
The blue pennant with the red cross and the white star is the pennant of the New York Yacht Club. See http://nyyc.org. I guess that the two other ones have to bee found somewhere in New York, too.
Ivan Sache, 4 August 2007
In the First World War Q-ships were intended as bait for submarines: They appeared to be a target that could be sunk by using the submarine's surface gun, rather than a costly torpedo, thus luring the submarine to the surface. Once the
submarine surfaced, the ship would hoist the white ensign to announce that it was in fact not a merchant but rather a warship, and it would uncover its guns and hopefully sink the submarine with them. The Q referred to their base: Queenstown in Ireland, now again known as Cobh. It would absolutely not have appear in their name, as that would have given the game away. The red is probably supposed to be the Rhode Island Yacht Club (http://www.riyc.org/home.html) (though it looks more like the reversed pattern of the Southwestern Yacht Club, San Diego, and the Eastern Yacht Club, Marblehead MA., which have a blue field and a red stripe. That's two in the same area, in fact both on Rhode Island I'd say.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 11 August 2008
The red pennant with the blue diagonal and white star of the "Pennant flags on Cauldon china" looks like Rhode Island Yacht Club (http://www.riyc.org).
Sven, 26 September 2008
On 3 August 2007, Kathleen Audet asked our help, as she'd been trying to identify the three flags on a gold encrusted cup and saucer set manufactured by the Cauldon China Company of England and distributed by Higgins and Seiter of New York. The name of the ship was hard to read, but seemed to be something like Coranter or Corunter. The photograph of the cup shows the burgees of the New York Yacht Club and of the Rhode Island Yacht Club. Both were identified more than once. The third flag was slightly larger, had a somewhat different character and seemed to fly over the other two. This lead to the suggestion that it might have been a yacht club abroad that had been visited by the other two clubs. I have now found that same, somewhat wilder character, however, on the American Yacht List of 1891, in the section on private signals of yacht owners. As the flags are ordered by colour, the flag is indeed easy to find there: On page 6 it's given as the private signal of A. E. Austin. This is probably the same A. E. Austin that is briefly mentioned in an article in The New York Times, August 12, 1904, page 3: "YACHT CLUB'S FIRST HOME IS RE-DEDICATED," about the reopening of the original building of the New York Yacht Club. In this article, the ship of A. E. Austin is listed as the steamer "Coranto." The gold encrusted cup and saucer set would appear to be manufactured by the Cauldon China for use on board the Steamer Coranto, whose owner A.E. Austin would have been a member of both the New York Yacht Club and the Rhode Island Yacht Club. Cup and saucer and flags identified.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 14 September 2009
I have now found that same, somewhat wilder character, however, on the American Yacht List. Indeed, Lloyds Register of American Yachts of 1903 in the section on private signals of yacht owners, page 23 shows it to be the private signal of A. E. Austin., for S.S. Coranto.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 15 September 2009
I can also confirm Peter's suggestion about the red pennant with white point star within a bendy blue stripe. It is the pennant of Rhode Island Yacht Club, established in 1875. You can find a tiny image on this webpage: www.burgees.com (list of clubs beginning with an "R").
Klaus-Michael Schneider, 31 January 2010
Some Speculation
Image submitted by Roger Moyer, 6 August 2007
From a Canadian stamp company auction (vanceauctions.com)
described thus: 89, Tied by 1909 RPO cancel on rare PATRIOTIC POSTCARD depicting "THE CANADIAN UNION JACK" flag. Previous owner said this is an unrecorded patriotic postcard design! Addressed to United States. VF, crease at LR
Roger Moyer, 6 August 2007
It seems more than likely to me it is has a connection with freemasonry. The handshake beneath the tree, and especially the eye, are classic Masonic symbols. The device above the handshake looks as though it could be a Beavers' Lodge, but
that might suggest that freemasons have a sense of humour. However, can anyone suggest what the three colours of light blue, yellow and red might represent?
André Coutanche, 9 August 2007
My hypothesis is that this is the initials on the badge are MLOP for "Many Lands, One People".
Miles Li, 9 August 2007
If so, this was the name of a political movement for some form of imperial federation throughout the British Empire in the late 19th - early 20th century. So the time is right, as is the suggestion that it is a "patriotic flag". It
doesn't explain the Masonic symbolism, though, or the fact that it was registered with the Department of Agriculture - an unlikely place for a flag to be registered, I would have thought.
James Dignan, 9 August 2007
If the initials do stand for "Many lands, one people" then the handshake would seem a perfectly appropriate symbol for intercommunal amity without having to invoke any Masonic connection. And as for the eye, it appears to be of some furred animal, not human. Would that have any Masonic significance?
Ned Smith, 9 August 2007
There was an article with that title in the July 1891 issue of the periodical Greater Britain, which advocated some sort of Imperial Union, [cited in an 18 August 1891 letter from Sir Theophilus Shepstone to H. Rider Hagtgard; see "The Days of My Life Volume II (1926)", Sir H. Rider Haggard http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300141.txt. However, from the context of the postcard, with the provincial names on the maple leaves, it seems to be applying the phrase (if in fact that's what the initials mean) strictly to Canada and not to the whole empire... so it might be viewed as a case of adaptive reuse. There are 11 maple leaves shown. I can't make out the topmost. The others are (I think) MAN, ONT, QUE, NS, NB, PEI, ALB, SAS, BC, NWT. But the one at the top of the tree looks like COM or CON (definitely not CAN). Can anybody tell what it stands for? And was it the flag or the postcard which was registered with the
DoA (strange bureaucratic placement in either case).
Ned Smith, 9 August 2007
I don't for a minute buy the idea that that eye is anything other than human. You could certainly argue that it is surrounded by a non-white skin (though it's a blue eye), and you could also argue that one of the hands in the handshake is darker than the other. This would certainly fit with the general idea of unified cultural diversity - though hardly of "One People." But the "Many Lands, One People" philosophy - as I understand it - was Empire-wide, so a Canadian-specific version is almost a contradiction in terms. Let us note the obvious other bit of symbolism - the combination of British and French colours - though we then need to explain why the French colours are slanted. If the eye is Masonic, then we have to explain 'MLOP' and the blue-yellow-red bands around the circle. If it's essentially an 'MLOP'-inspired flag, then we have to explain the eye and the bands. You also ask about the top leaf and its abbreviation; I can't really answer (unless it's 'confederation'??), but I can confuse the picture even more - according to Wiki, at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada#Provinces_and_territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan weren't even provinces in 1904, the date shown for this flag (though I guess they could have been seen to be en route).
André Coutanche, 9 August 2007
I sent an email to the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the current form of the Department of Agriculture. Their reply is as follows: "The Department of Agriculture Act, which received Royal Assent on May 22, 1868, assigned, in addition to Agriculture, the following subjects to be under the control and direction of the Department of Agriculture: Immigration and Emigration, Public Health and Quarantine, The Marine and Emigrant Hospital at Québec, Arts and Manufactures, The Census, Statistics and the Registration of Statistics, Patents of Invention, Copyright, and Industrial Designs and Trademarks. As federal departments were created to take over these subjects, they left the Agriculture portfolio. The last to go, in 1918, were Patents of Invention, Copyrights, Trademarks and Timber Marks, Industrial Design, Public Health and Quarantine. At Confederation there was already a well established Department of Agriculture with the infrastructure to handle the assigned duties, and also, at the time, immigration and public health had a great many quarantine issues attached which included animals and animal health and products and plants and plant health and products, so there would have been quite a degree of connection to these and matters agricultural."
So it seems that the registration of printed matter was a combination of a number of factors; 1) the Dept of Agriculture could handle the workload, and 2) Often, the matter had some relevance to agriculture, so the Department could keep on top of new developments. I have a book on the history of Western Canada published in 1906, registered with Agriculture.
Georges G. Kovari, 10 August 2007
I also contacted Agriculture and Agri-Foods Canada who suggested it might be a part of a flag-design contest, but there's no documentation to support this. Given the dates on the postcard, and from the abbreviations on the maple leaves of the tree, that idea (of a contest) isn't such a bad one! Included in those abbreviations are 9 provinces and 1 territory - all that had been formed at that particular time. The beaver design is quite similar to early postage stamps and even some current coins, which would be consistent with a patriotic use of that symbol in a context.
Bob Hunt, 10 August 2007
This Canadian flag belongs to some unidentified fraternal order. The date could be approximated by counting the provinces on the maple leaves in the tree. "Registered with the Department of Agriculture" only means that the image is copyrighted – for some unknown reason, probably saving money, the Minister of Agriculture was responsible for the Copyright Act in the late 19th and very early 20th centuries. The Masonic references are a bit of a red herring, as almost all fraternal societies ultimately take some inspiration from the Masons, but that doesn´t mean that there were ever any ties between them. The key to identifying the flag is the initials under the clasped hands in the oval badge. The "O" probably stands for "Order" as the word appears in the legal names of many such bodies – e.g. the Odd Fellows, Eagles and Elks to name a few which readily come to mind. I hope that this helps, but it remains necessary to go through lists of both defunct and existing lodges to determine what it is.
Michael Halleran, 2 January 2010
Some Speculation
Images provided by Sal Giglia, 21 August 2007
Enclosed are shots of a painting containing a flag...any thoughts? I thought it could be Bohemia-Moravia but that flag is too young for this boat. The boat is I believe a opium trade boat of the 19th century when it was fashionable for the
French and English to frequent such exotic trips to the Mideast. Larger images can be seen at
http://www.flagid.org/vexphotos/ufe/DSC04706.JPG and
http://www.flagid.org/vexphotos/ufe/DSC06532.JPG.
Sal Giglia, 21 August 2007
Possibilities are Schaumburg-Lippe or Slovakia 1848-1868, when the order of the stripes wasn't fixed to W-B-R. Both are in the time frame, but are a bit unexpected.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 21 August 2007
At Saturday's "Last Night of the Proms" in Royal Albert Hall I saw a flag, which I couldn't identify. It was dark blue, surrounded by small red and white bars. The central figure was an undressed lady (virgin?), standing on a golden disc (son, moon??). A white ribbon covered her nudity in smart fashion. Can anybody tell me, which flag this was?
Thomas Binder, 10 September 2007
Positive ID
Image submitted by Stephen Schwartz, 26 June 2007
This resembles a realignment of the common Catalan-Aragonese-Balearic "quatre barres." Source: http://www.wwii-collectibles.com
Stephen Schwartz, 26 June 2007
The language looks suspiciously like Italian- so presumably it was for somewhere like Abyssinia/Somalia.
James Dignan, 3 July 2007
I think it is Italian, a colonial formation based in Italian Somaliland before the Second World War. The red and yellow are just the distinctive colours of the formation (others used different colours), and not connected to Spain/Catalonia. There are some similar flags illustrated at
http://www.uniformi.org/disegni/disegni.html, but the scans are so low resolution, I cannot make out all the captions clearly.
Ian Sumner, 3 July 2007
It is a pennant of the colonial troops during World War II. The units (detachments) of the colonial troops had these striped flags (stripes) vertical with several colors. The number refers to the number of the unit.
Alessandro Martinelli, 17 November 2007
It is a military colonial flag, of the First Colonial brigade in Eritrea. This kind of flags were often stripped, had bright colours with a Roman number indicating the battalion or the brigade. You can see several examples of them on
these two web pages: http://www.ilcornodafrica.it/fs-cart1.htm and
http://www.ilcornodafrica.it/fs-cart2.htm.
Roberto Breschi, 18 November 2007
One Tentative ID
Images submitted by Julian Purser, 12 September 2007
I have been searching your site, but have been unable to trace the three attached house flags. Have you any ideas please?
Julian Purser, 12 september 2007
This pennant on the left is the same as the "Six-Pointed Blue Star on White Pennant" submitted by Tom Pountney, 7 January 2008.
Pete Loeser, 19 January 2010
The middle pin, BTW, I think is related to the Internationaal
Motor Transportbedrijf: blue field, white oval with the letters IMT. I'm also not sure we have the current flag details right for that company; I've asked them for more information.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 19 January 2010
Image by Clay Moss, 3 October 2007
I was watching Al Jazeera tonight and this flag popped up flying over a big mosque looking building. The camera stayed on the flag for a while, so I got a good look at it. I couldn't understand anything being said, but if I were a guessing man, I would say that story was coming out of Algeria or maybe Tunisia.
Clay Moss, 3 October 2007
Image by Eugene Ipavec, 4 October 2007
Quite recently I saw some new footage of President Ahmadinejad inspecting a parade, with a flag just behind him. This time I got a better look; the flag was green, with a wide black border, itself bordered in gold. In the two fly corners
there were Iranian national emblems, also gold, tilted 45 deg. - I assume these were also at the hoist, but the flag was partially furled. In the bottom fly corner there was an Iranian flag, also tilted 45 deg. This may also have been at
all corners. Most of the green field was taken up by a large golden piece of calligraphy, which I here represent purely symbolically. It looked more angular than this, possibly Kufic-style. Also note that this bears a certain modest
resemblance to the "Official Flag" of Hezbollah.
Eugene Ipavec, 4 October 2007
Positive ID
Images provided by Al Kirsch, 7 March 2007
Someone sent me the above images which I cannot identify; the second one is the detail on the first for clarity. He said he can't find anything about them on the internet.
Al Kirsch, 7 March 2007
The flag illustrated can be identified. This is the flag of the Nazi Veterans Association. The Nazi era Government absorbed the several veterans groups such as the Stahlhelm and the Kyffhauser bund to create a centralized Nazi controlled veterans association.
Chuck Linderman, 19 August 2007
Some Speculation
Image provided by hrothgar01usa, 1 November 2007
There is a series of articles on BBC's website, bbc.com, that describes a journey through Bangladesh to ascertain the effects of changing climatic patterns. In one photo, there are two unknown flags. I have uploaded this photo to the Photos section of the group. Any ideas as to what this is?
hrothgar01usa, 1 November 2007
Considering the general settings, it would seem as if the 'flags' are actually three flags each - monocolored banners are a major feature of devotional imagery in the Subcontinent, especially but not limited to Buddhists. While I can say
they are almost certainly likely to be some kind of prayer banners, whether they're permanent or temporary (in response to a recent event or crisis) and which group (ethnic or religious) is using them is beyond me.
B. Casey, 5 September 2008
Image from Jerry Nelson
My eccentric mother of 80 years sent me a flag in the mail (for what reason, I can only guess Christmas), and she does not know what the flag represents. It is horizontal striped, tri-colored, much like Bolivia, but has the colors in this
order: Yellow-Orange-Green, or Green-Orange-yellow. I have looked at every flag picture I can find on the FOTW website and am out of leads. It is too orange to be red, and is a well made 3x5 [feet], nylon, maybe as early as the 70's i would
guess. There is no maker marks, just a "3x5" stamped on the white binding with brass grommets. She probably picked it up at a yard sale or thrift store, and there is no telling why she found it interesting enough to buy. She lives in Central Minnesota, and I don't think it is a college flag, but one never knows, maybe a high school or car dealership thing, but the colors don't make sense for high school.
Jerry Nelson, 20 December 2007
Some Speculation
Image provided by Al Cavalari, 23 July 2007
Someone was told that the flag on the right is a Christian flag. Can anyone tell me from what sect, group or church it derives?
Al Cavalari, 23 July 2007
The wheel of life used by Indian tribes in the USA is identical to the Celtic cross used by right wing groups, given the white on red I would say this usage is native American, however, the photo is not perfect if the cross sections are
not equal, then I would say this might be a one-time-type religious flag from some small Christian sect.
Rick Prohaska, 29 January 2008
