National Flag of the Republic of China, 1910-1928.
This colorful small silk five striped flag was the national flag of the Chinese Republic declared by Dr. Sun Yat-sen in 1912. This five striped, red, golden-yellow, royal blue, white and black colors of the national flag was created in 1912, and combined the colors of the five dominant ethnicities of China; Han Chinese, Manchurians, Mongolians, Muslims and Tibetans respectively. The concept of national flags in the Western sense was relatively recent in China even though flags had been used in China for millennia.
This rectangular silk table top flag was not made in China, and dates from after 1910. The flag was made in New York City by Annin and Co., the nation's oldest and largest flag maker. Annin made flags "for the trade". The precise dating is possible because this flag was originally acquired from the B. Pasquale Company of San Francisco, CA, and B. Pasquale was an Annin dealer.
This flag was adopted when the Chinese Republic was declared in 1912 and it was made obsolete in 1928 when the party flag of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) became the national flag, and the five striped flag was rendered obsolete. This flag can be dated to between the declaration of the Chinese Republic in 1912 and the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915 because of the other obsolete flags with which it was discovered; ZFC3633, ZFC3634, ZFC3635, ZFC3631, ZFC3630, ZFC3632 and ZFC3629. These flag were all carried in obsolete inventory by the Pasquale Company until they dissolved in the 1980s.
Provenance: Acquired in 2006 at the North American Vexillological Association annual meeting in Reno, Nevada.
ZFC Noteworthy Flag
Sources:
China Republic national flag, 1912-1929, Flags of the World, 23 May 2012, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/cn-nqta.html
B. Pasquale & Co., The first "outfitter" on the west coast, U.S. MILITARIA FORUM, 23 May, 2012, from: http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=25314
Sun Yat-sen, Wikipedia, 23 May 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Yat-sen
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
