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Of the many fantastic star
patterns one can find on early American flags, there are
unique or nearly unique examples
where the maker incorporated completely whimsical and
unique designs onto their flags. This 37 star flag,
which dates to between 1867 and 1876, is one such flag.
A similar flag with 34 stars, having five stars in the
center and only single stars in the border spaces in
between the corner clusters, was held in the famed Mastai Collection. It is pictured in their book on page
109 in a chapter called "The Starry Flower". So rare is
this pattern that other than the Mastai example, which
is similar but with some differences, such as having all
stars the same size and with five points, I have not
encountered another in 15 years of searching and
collecting. The maker clearly wanted to have some
symmetry in the design, and cleverly determined that to
achieve this with a 37 star flag, they could add two
stars into the spaces between the corner clusters at the
top and bottom, and could use a six-pointed star in the
center, surrounded by six stars. This enabled them to
maintain symmetry, resulting in a beautiful "Starry
Flower" flag. The canton rests on the "blood stripe",
but this clearly is not a war-related flag. The
exuberant pattern and homemade character of the flag,
being made of cotton with a cornflower blue canton of
high quality polished cotton fabric, is indicative of a
flag most likely made to celebrate the Centennial in
1876. Colorado came into the Union on August 1, 1876,
becoming the 38th state. In anticipation of this, most
flags known to date to the Centennial have 38 stars,
though the Centennial year is the end of the 37 star
era, and there are also 37 star flags known to be made
for the Centennial, though flags in the 37 star count
are are more scarce. |
