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 The two most
spectacular and sought after patterns of American flags
from the 19th century are the Great Star pattern, also
known as the Grand Luminary pattern, where the stars
themselves form a larger star; and the medallion
pattern, which consists of one or more concentric
wreaths of stars, and typically has one or more outlier
stars in each of the four corners of the canton.
Both are very rare, and are highly prized because of
their distinctive, memorable patterns. This
beautiful flag of 37 stars is a hybrid of both great
patterns, having a great star of 10 stars at its center,
surrounded by a single-wreath medallion with 23 stars in
the wreath and one star in each corner. Only a
handful of "great star in a medallion" flags are known,
and this is one of the most striking of any I'm aware
of. Pieced and sewn flags of 37 stars are
themselves very scarce, which also adds to the
desirability of this flag. It seems that between the end
of the Civil War in 1865 which ended on the 36 star
flag, and the American Centennial in 1876 where large
numbers of 38 star flags commemorating Colorado were
made, patriotic fervor seemed to wane, and with it, the
manufacture of flags. Whatever the reason, I've
only seen a very few examples of pieced and sewn 37 star
flags appear in the marketplace, and of those, probably
fewer than five with patterns other than rows. It
remains a spectacular survivor from the post-Civil War
Reconstruction Era. |
