Command flag as used by the Generals at Sea during the Commonwealth period. The flag is made of red wool bunting with a linen hoist. It is hand-sewn with an appliqué design showing a wreath of laurel and bay branches surrounding two shields charged with the cross of St George and the harp of Ireland. The flag has been incorrectly made up with the shields upside down. The flag was preserved for many years at Chatham dockyard where it was shown to George III in 1781 (see 'Gentleman's Magazine', March 1803, p. 220.)
The government abolished the Royal Standard in 1649, and the Union Flag as the symbol of the unification of the crowns of England and Scotland also went out of use. During the 11 years between the execution of Charles I and the restoration of the monarchy a variety of flags based on the cross of St George impaling the Irish harp were worn at sea. On the new jack, the cross and harp occupied the whole flag.
Commonwealth Standard
Date
between 1652 and 1654
date QS:P571,+1652-00-00T00:00:00Z/8,P1319,+1652-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1654-00-00T00:00:00Z/9
Dimensions
flag: 4521.2 x 6248.4 mm
Notes
It will need to be checked for object numbers and its condition activity updated.
Flag made with the two shields in the design upside down. Formerly attached to Brazilian flag AAA1119. Backed with synthetic net 1978-9 RP/32/17 does not contain unique number or scale. Framed drawing of flag in Antiquities Miscellaneous Section. A painted version of the Commonwealth arms at St Nicholas's Church, North Walsham.
The original artefact or artwork has been assessed as public domain by age, and faithful reproductions of the two dimensional work are also public domain. No permission is required for reuse for any purpose.
The text of this image record has been derived from the Royal Museums Greenwich catalogue and image metadata. Individual data and facts such as date, author and title are not copyrightable, but reuse of longer descriptive text from the catalogue may not be considered fair use. Reuse of the text must be attributed to the "National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London" and a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license may apply if not rewritten. Refer to Royal Museums Greenwich copyright.
Identifier
InfoField
RUSI number: 3353 WAFN: 119 dossier number: item-standards & banners file number: J8/05 id number: AAA0800 undefined: MOD1084 part of
Collection
InfoField
Flags
Licensing
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/PDMCreative Commons Public Domain Mark 1.0falsefalse
The official position taken by the Wikimedia Foundation is that "faithful reproductions of two-dimensional public domain works of art are public domain". This photographic reproduction is therefore also considered to be in the public domain in the United States. In other jurisdictions, re-use of this content may be restricted; see Reuse of PD-Art photographs for details.
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