Jeff Bridgman Antique Flags
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  PAIR OF HAND-SEWN, HOMEMADE, WOOL PARADE FLAGS WITH 35 STARS, 1863-1865, CIVIL WAR PERIOD, FORMERLY IN THE COLLECTION OF DEAN JOHNSON AND JIMMY KRAMER, ILLUSTRATED IN "SEASONS AT SEVEN GATES FARM"

Available: Sold
Frame Size (H x L): 30.5" x 47"
Flag Size (H x L): 13" x 17.5" (23.5" - staff)
Description....:
Fantastic matching pair of homemade parade flags with 35 stars, tacked to their original wooden staffs, with hand-sewn, wool bunting construction and cross-hatch style stars made from woolen yarn. Hand-made parade flags are especially unusual. Rare in any period, they are highly desired because of their small, easily displayable size and the charm that usually accompanies their materials and design. A matching pair, such as these, is virtually unheard of. Note the exceptional folk are value in the presentation, as well as the spear-like, wooden finials on the staffs, which ass great character. These particular flags were part of the collection of Dean Johnson and Jimmy Kramer. Johnson, now deceased, was a former editor for Country Home Magazine and an avid flag enthusiast, whose home and collections were featured regularly in a host of periodicals and books. These exact flags were published in the book “Country Living: Seasons at Seven Gates Farm,” by Seehafer, Mary Sears and Morton, Keith Scott, (Hearst Corporation, 1996), p. 127, which pictured and described Johnson and Kramer’s splendid estate. West Virginia broke off from Virginia and was admitted into the Union as the 35th state (a Free State) on June 20th, 1863, a few days before the battle of Gettysburg. The 35th star was officially added on July 4th, and the flag was used during the closing years of the war. Production would have generally ceased the following year, however, with the addition of Nevada as the 36th state on October 31st, 1864. The only other notable pair of handmade parade flags I can think of were part of the Mastai Collection and are pictured in their landmark text "The Stars and the Stripes," Boleslaw and Marie D’Ostrange-Mastai, (Knopf, New York, 1973) p. 201. The Mastai’s held the most highly publicized collection of American flags in the country and in 1973 became the first major collectors to publish the first, major, illustrated book on the flag from the perspective of flag collecting. With stars represented by gold sequins and applied fringes at the fly end, I was privileged to have subsequently acquired and sold them in or around 2002. Mounting: The flags have been hand-stitched to 100% cotton twill, black in color, that has been washed to reduce excess dye. An acid-free agent was added to the wash to further set the dye and the fabric was heat-treated for the same purpose. A shadow box was created to keep the textiles away from the glass, which is U.V. protective. Condition: Moth damage required restoration of some of the stars. There is minor to modest mothing in the stripes, in addition to two more moderate holes.
Collector Level: Flags for the truest Patriots. My best offerings
Flag Type: Sewn flag
Star Count: 35
Earliest Date of Origin: 1863
Latest Date of Origin: 1864
State/Affiliation: West Virginia
War Association: 1861-1865 Civil War
Price: No
 

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