| EXTRAORDINARY, HAND-SEWN, 13 STAR AMERICAN NATIONAL FLAG WITH 8-POINTED STARS ON A GLAZED COTTON, CORNFLOWER BLUE CANTON, 12 STRIPES, AND ITS CANTON RESTING ON THE WAR STRIPE, FOUND IN UPSTATE, NEW YORK, PRE-CIVIL WAR, LIKELY MADE circa 1820-1840’s; EXHIBITED AT THE MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION FROM JUNE – JULY, 2019 |
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| Web ID: | 13j-1463 |
| Available: | In Stock |
| Frame Size (H x L): | 48.25" x 48.25" |
| Flag Size (H x L): | 34.75" x 36" |
| Description: | |
| Homemade and entirely hand-sewn, 13 star American national flag with a host of exceptional and visually unusual features. Made in the Antebellum period of American history, circa 1830, this dramatic example falls amongst the earliest that one may ever hope to encounter. Discovered near Lake Ontario, in Upstate New York, in the rural region west of Syracuse, the flag exhibits a host of both visually and academically interesting features, including 8-pointed stars, 12 stripes, and a cornflower blue canton resting on the war stripe. Most people remain unaware that the legislation that created the Stars & Stripes as the American national flag, passed by Congress on June 14, 1777 (Flag Day) comprised of but one sentence: “Resolved, that the flag of the United States be made of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation.” Given the level of importance bestowed upon the American flag today, and its role over the course of American history, most Americans are surprised to learn that, not only at its point of inception, but during the 135 years that followed, only the most scant specifics were imposed on the flag’s appearance. Blatantly absent is a description of what this new constellation was supposed to look like. The shape of the stars received no mention, nor did the desired shades of red and blue. The proportions of the flag itself were not indicated, nor was there any direction as to where the blue canton (union) was to be placed upon the striped field. The above omissions are readily apparent in this fine example of pre-Civil War flag making in rural New York State. Illustrations of the Stars & Stripes from the 18th century through the 1850’s, viewable in engraved prints, sketches, paintings, newspapers, and on all manner of both folk art and fine art objects, document all sorts of crazy variations in the American flag. Though 5-pointed stars are easily the most common, star profiles displaying some other number are most expected in this time frame. Because surviving flags from the pre-1861 era are rare, representing just 1-2% of what survives from the period between 1861 and 1900, it’s important to remember this is a very tiny number of what’s known, to being with. The fact that 98 or 99 out of 100 flags of the 19th century were made from 1861 onward means that, in sheer numbers, more flags with a point count other than 5 survive in this period, but as a percentage of that total, the feature is even more scarce. Suffice to say that it is very desirable in all 19th century flags. Why 13 Stars? 13 star flags have been continuously produced throughout our nation’s history for a variety of purposes both practical and patriotic. Because this was the original number of stars on the American flag, representing the original 13 colonies, it was appropriate for any flag made in conjunction with celebrations of American independence. In addition to use at the 1876 centennial, 13 star flags were hoisted at patriotic events, including Lafayette’s visit in 1824-25, the sesquicentennial in 1926, and celebrations of July 4th. They were displayed during the Civil War, to reference past struggles for American liberty, and were used by 19th century politicians while campaigning for the same reason. 13 star flags were flown on American ships both private and federal. The U.S. Navy used 13 stars on flags made for small boats, because they wished the stars to be easily discerned at a distance. Prior to the 1880’s this meant most flags 10 feet and under. Because the number of stars grew with the addition of new states, it became more and more difficult to fit stars on a small flag so that they may be viewed from afar as individual objects. Because any star count that has previously been official remains so today according to the Congressional flag acts, all 13 star flags in an otherwise appropriate design remain official flags of the United States. The popularity of the Navy’s use of 13 stars on small flags seems to have translated to both homemade flags and those of commercial flag-makers. Most flags of the 19th century, with pieced-and-sewn construction (as opposed to printed), were 8 feet long and larger on the fly. Flags were, in general, very large compared to those of today, because they needed to be to be effective in their function as signals. Even those made for decorative use were generally much bigger in scale than anyone today would expect. The smaller a flag is from this period, the more unusual it is among its surviving counterparts. Because small flags are much easier to frame and display in an indoor setting, they are very desired by collectors, especially those wishing to display many at once. Although 13 actually represents one of the more common star counts in flags that have survived from the 19th century until today—perhaps because they were generally smaller and more easily saved—one of the very interesting facts that applies to this particular flag is the extreme scarcity of others that have stars with something other than 5 points. In spite of having owned thousands of antique flags, made between the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th, and more than 1,000 13 star examples, this fact didn’t dawn on me until I was assembling the first large museum exhibition of them in 2019. At the time I had the best collections of 13 star flags that I had ever possessed previously, but I had just one complete flag available to me -- the one that is the subject of this narrative -- and one fragment, with something other than 5-pointed stars. Remembering most, especially the great ones, then double-checking my photo files, just to be sure, I recognized with awe that almost none that I had ever owned or seen shared this extraordinarily rare trait. Though I have had the great privilege to acquire a pretty fair number of fantastic flags with 4, 6, 7, 8, and 10-pointed stars, among other profiles even more unusual, nearly none were in the 13 star count. On closer inspection of the topic, in spite of very likely having owned far and away more antique flags with 13 stars than any other entity--collector, museum, institution, or otherwise—a predominance of images, plus a couple of widely illustrated examples, had clouded my perception. Due to the popularity of 8-pointed stars in 19th century quilting, sometimes referred to as the Lemoyne star, it is of little surprise to encounter this format in a homemade flag. If the maker was a quilter, which was very likely in a rural location where a flag or flags were demanded, and there was either no need or no desire to go to a commercial source, the inclusion of a star type that the maker was familiar with, makes perfect sense. The stripes of the flag are made of plain weave cotton, as are the stars. The latter are formally appliquéd to the cotton chintz canton. When viewed horizontally [backwards facing by modern standards, with the stripes horizontal], these appear to begin with a row of 4, then quickly disintegrate into a random pattern. At least 80 different star configurations are known among flags in the 13 star count alone. Among these, a random arrangement is not only among the rarest, but the earliest of all patterns, present on two of the drawings submitted to Congress by Francis Hopkinson of New Jersey, often cited (though arguably) as the primary individual who designed the American flag. A designer of other devices, with an interest in heraldry, Hopkinson presented random scatters of 13 stars in both of his proposed sketches for the Great Seal of the United States. In addition to the wonderful and visually interesting stars, note the cornflower blue color of the glazed cotton fabric to which they are sewed. This is both indicative of the period in which the flag was made and, due to its attractive and atypical appearance, and of notable interest not only to flag collectors, but to connoisseurs of early American textiles in general. The canton is applied to just one side, the one we now think of as the reverse, so that in terms of the presence of a canton, the flag is one-sided. In a way it is not, however, as the entirety of the obverse is the 12-striped field over which it is lain. The shape of the flag is unusual for a homemade example, being approximately an inch larger on the hoist measurement (height) than it is on the fly (length), so that its visual presentation is near-to-square. The canton, though irregular, mimics these proportions, so that when draped vertically [as shown in the lead image], the format almost translates into a horizontal flag with vertical stripes. In-and-of-itself, the square profile is not unexpected. Land-use battle flags shared these proportions, not only during the Revolution, but throughout the 19th century and into the 20th. Flags could be more easily carried on foot if they were constructed in this style, which allowed not only for the largest possible signals to be raised, without dragging on the ground, while simultaneously minimizing wind resistance. Similar profiles are also encountered within many of the earliest parade flags, printed on cotton or silk, made to be waved by bystanders or displayed in other ways at parades and political events. The earliest datable examples were made for the 1840 presidential campaign of William Henry Harrison. Many of these were likewise near to square, with similarly truncated, square cantons, almost all of them displaying 13 stars instead of the full star count of the time. Although the size of these varied a little from one to the next, on the whole they were just a hair smaller than the homemade 13 star flag that is the subject of this narrative. Another notable similarity between this particular flag and he parade flags of the Harrison campaign, as well as some of the flags produced in 1844 for fellow Whig, Henry Clay, is a number of stripes that differs from the official count of 13. Within just one basic style of Harrison campaign flag, in which there are a number of close variations, produced with similar print blocks, at least 5 different stripe counts are known, some more and some less than 13. Though the use of so many different numbers of stripes may or may not have any meaning in some of the earliest printed flags, modifications of the national flag began to appear during the Antebellum, with elements that reflected solidarity in the number of Free or Slave States, primarily the former. Though various hidden (or subtly hidden) messages may have been employed in the 19-teens and prior—further research is required—escalating tempers over the balance of power in slaveholding versus non-slaveholding states escalated until an agreement was struck in 1820. In that year, a series of laws, known collectively as the Missouri Compromise, were passed by Congress to limit the spread of slavery geographically, while guaranteeing a balanced admittance of Free and Slave States (equal at the time). Part of the related legislation admitted Missouri as the 12th Slave State, and Maine as the 12th Free State. Fast-forward to 1850. Recent research in unveiled that the use of certain low star counts, namely 15 and 16, was taking place during the mid-19th century, in the face of heated political agendas. As the region guaranteed for additional Slave States evaporated with the addition of Texas as the 15th Slave State (December 29th, 1845), the nation tipped toward Southern secession and war. Wisconsin was admitted as number 15 in the North (May 29th, 1848), but when gold was discovered in California a year later, and the population of the region exploded, the addition of the 16th Free State became nearly inevitable. Though the practice of making what the newspapers would refer to as “Disunion” flags does not seem to have been reported on until the 1850’s, at least in currently available sources, the survival of actual flags, with what I now believe to be Southern-exclusionary star counts, suggests that it occurred at least as early as the time of the Missouri Compromise itself, if not prior. Some of the 16 star flags that appeared with California’s admission, to glorify the Free States, were actually produced at federal navy yards and flown by U.S. Navy ships. Reported on by Southern papers, the practice triggered anger in the South. Though the Navy seems to have primarily flown 13 star flags on small craft, not by way of regulations, but for practical reasons (previously discussed) and as a matter of tradition, other star counts appear to have been used both before and after. Flags with 12 stars, made of earlier fabrics and entirely hand-sewn, probably dating to the 1820’s or 1830’s, survive with traits common to the U.S. Navy ensigns made for small boats in the 1850’s and after. Given the heightened fervor of the slavery issue, and the presence of applicable star counts in similar but earlier flags, it stands to reason that the concept was an earlier one that likewise may have become tradition, perhaps at certain Navy yards or by certain officers / quartermasters. When the Slave Trade became illegal in the U.S., in 1807, the duty of upholding federal law fell to both the ships of the U.S. Revenue Marine (a.k.a. Revenue Cutter Service, created by Alexander Hamilton in 1791 to aid the U.S. Customs Service), and those of the U.S. Navy. Outside wartime, quelling piracy and illegal trade comprised a significant portion of the related tasks of both Revenue Cutters and Navy ships. This may explain how flags with exclusionary star counts came about in the U.S. Navy, but various other examples, made privately or commercially, adjusted both star counts and stripe counts to reflect political sentiment. The reason behind the use of 12 stripes, in a pre-Civil war flag from Upstate New York, with 13 stars, may be to subtly display sentiments of disunion at a political rally or patriotic gala. This was the count of Free States in the era between the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and the 1837 addition of Michigan. Because small, printed flags did not yet exist, anything made for gatherings or celebrations of this sort had to be handmade. On this particular flag, the 12-stripe field begins with white instead of red, which is especially unusual and suggests that it was, indeed, purposeful. This rare condition probably explains another atypical feature, in that the canton rests on a red stripe instead of white. Some flag historians refer to this as the “blood stripe” or the “war stripe," suggesting the flag was altered in this fashion when the nation was at war. If the blood stripe characteristic was only present in wartime flags, and was fairly consistent, the suggested theory may have some merit. Though the circumstance of the canton resting on a white stripe is overwhelmingly present in 19th and early 20th century examples, neither the size of the canton, nor its position was specified by any of the three Flag Acts (177, 1795, and 1818). So while it typically falls on the 7th stripe, this aspect didn’t become official until an Executive Order of President Taft in 1912. Prior to this time, it might appear on the 6th, 8th, or 9th stripe, where it became visually apparent among its counterparts, or in some other location even more distinct. Whatever the case may be, flags with their canton on the “blood stripe” have developed a mystical aura in the collector community that has made it very desired, no matter what the reason. Most Americans don’t realize that prior to the Civil War, private citizens seldom displayed the Stars & Stripes in the same way that they do today. With the exception of use on merchant ships, one key function appears to have been for display at political parades and rallies, or patriotic events of major significance, such as the grand tour of Lafayette. Accompanied by a continuous stream of over-the-top parades, banquets, speeches, and parties, George Washington’s dear friend, Revolutionary war general, and confidant, stopped in city after city as Americans celebrated its esteemed French ally in the war for independence. Lafayette’s meticulously planned journey brought him to the region in which this flag was found in June of 1825. Leaving Erie, Pennsylvania on June 3rd, this began with a speech at the Eagle Tavern in Buffalo on the 4th, a visit to Niagara Falls on the 5th, a meeting with Rev. War veterans at Silvius Hoard’s Tavern in Rochester on the 7th, a visit to Syracuse on the 9th, and a journey to Schenectady via the Erie Canal on the 11th where he met with Mayor Isaac Schermerhorn and dined at the Givens Hotel. The New York State portion of this particular trek ended at Albany on June 12th, where he visited with Governor Joseph Yates. This type of flag could have been made for use at any of these junctures, or at any point in-between. One can only imagine the excitement of those who lined every road and waterway for a glimpse of the French-American Hero. Though the manufacture of actual flags appears to have been extraordinarily limited, flags in a myriad of whimsical and dynamic styles appear in illustrations of all sorts in the early-mid 19th century, not only at the time of Lafayette’s visit, but in the patriotic fervor surrounding America’s 50th and 75th anniversaries in 1826 and 1851, the centennial of George Washington’s birth, in 1832, the Mexican War (1846-48), and political demonstrations. Representations in newspapers, on paper ephemera, ribbons, porcelain objects, and other artifacts show adaptations of the national flag with widely varying numbers of stripes, as well as with eagles, slogans, and many forms of stars, displaying all types of spectacular graphic qualities and oddities. While images are numerous in era in which this flag was conceived, surviving flags are not. The combination of this fact with the flag’s 8-pointed stars, its canton resting on the war stripe, a square format, the cornflower blue color, and the tiny size of the flag among its sewn, 19th century counterparts, result in an absolutely exceptional addition to any collection. Note: This flag can be displayed in one of the two ways, horizontally, with the canton on the right, or vertically, with the canton on the left, which is the proper manner of display per the flag code and modern flag ethics. Display of the American national flag with the canton in the upper left did not enter the American consciousness as the one correct manner of presentation until sometime around the year 1900, and was not formally dictated as such until the flag code was adopted in 1923. In the 19th century (and prior) it was just as common to see the flag displayed with the canton on the right. Provenance: Exhibited at the Museum of the American Revolution from June-July, 2019 in an exhibition entitled “A New Constellation.” Curated by Jeff Bridgman, this was the first ever large scale exhibition of 13 star flags at a major museum. One should note that of the 40 flags presented, this was the only one that did not have 5-pointed stars. This is due to the extreme rarity of actual, surviving examples that share this feature. Mounting: The flag has been mounted and framed within our own conservation lab, which is led by expert staff. We take great care in the mounting and preservation of flags and have framed thousands of examples. The background is 100% cotton twill, black in color. The black-painted, hand-gilded and distressed molding has a wide, serpentine profile and is Italian. The glazing is U.V. protective plexiglass. Condition: Please inquire for a full report. |
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| Video: | https://youtu.be/pp9axo0berQ |
| Collector Level: | Flags for the truest Patriots. My best offerings |
| Flag Type: | Sewn flag |
| Star Count: | 13 |
| Earliest Date of Origin: | 1830 |
| Latest Date of Origin: | 1850 |
| State/Affiliation: | 13 Original Colonies |
| War Association: | 1777-1860 Pre-Civil War |
| Price: | Please call (717) 676-0545 or (717) 502-1281 |
| E-mail: | info@jeffbridgman.com |
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