| WAR-PERIOD CONFEDERATE FLAG IN THE FIRST NATIONAL PATTERN (a.k.a., STARS & BARS), IN A TINY SIZE, WITH AN ELONGATED PROFILE, AND 11 STARS ARRANGED IN AN UNUSUAL, RECTANGULAR MEDALLION; ENTIRELY HAND-SEWN, MADE BETWEEN MAY - NOVEMBER, 1861 |
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| Web ID: | fcj-943 |
| Available: | In Stock |
| Frame Size (H x L): | Approx. 28" x 47.5" |
| Flag Size (H x L): | 16.75" x 40" unfurled |
| Description: | |
| Confederate flag in the First National design, made sometime between May and November of 1861, the opening year of the Civil War, when 11 states had seceded and were accepted into the Confederate States of America. Entirely hand-sewn throughout, the flag’s 11 stars are arranged in an extremely unusual pattern across known examples in this design. This consists of a rectangular perimeter of 10 stars, with a single star in the center. In American national flags with 13 stars, this rare configuration is generally referred to as the Trumbull pattern, named after the artist John Trumbull (1746-1853), Harvard graduate and son of the Governor of Connecticut, who, among other appointments, served as George Washington's aide-de-camp. Trumbull is known to have included flags with their stars arranged this way, in paintings of Washington that he rendered post-war, completed between approximately 1789 and 1831. Although the flags may not have actually been present in any of these particular scenes that Trumbull was illustrating, the name was adopted by vexillologists as a means to identify the pattern. The stars of the flag are made of cotton and are double-appliquéd (applied to both sides). The canton and red bars of the flag are made of wool bunting, a fabric used widely in flags made for long-term outdoor use by commercial flag-makers and ship’s chandlers. The center bar is likewise of wool, but of a denser variety more commonly used in the making of clothing or perhaps upholstery, heavy and thus seldom encountered in the manufacture of flags. Note that two lengths of blue wool were used to construct the canton. This simply reflects an efficient use of whatever was likely available to the maker, either left-over from other jobs or being recycled from other flags. Because the amount of white wool necessary to produce this example was so small, the latter scenario seems rather unlikely. Confederate flags required more red than white, so repurposed white fabric, from a Stars & Stripes, for example, would have been aplenty if a flags was deconstructed to make this. The mix of fabrics suggests that what was used was acquired specifically for the task and white wool bunting was evidently in short supply. More to follow... |
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| Collector Level: | Flags for the truest Patriots. My best offerings |
| Flag Type: | Sewn flag |
| Star Count: | 11 |
| Earliest Date of Origin: | 1861 |
| Latest Date of Origin: | 1861 |
| State/Affiliation: | The Confederacy |
| War Association: | 1861-1865 Civil War |
| Price: | Please call (717) 676-0545 or (717) 502-1281 |
| E-mail: | info@jeffbridgman.com |
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