34-Star US Flag.
This is large wool, hand and machine sewn, double applique, 34-star flag with a modified rectilinear star field with accent stars. The flag's history is unknown but it was formerly flag # 38 in the acclaimed collection of noted antique dealer Mr. Boleslaw Mastai and his wife Marie-Louise d'Otrange Mastai, formerly of New York City and later of Amagansett, Long Island. In their book they speculated that this was, because of its size a military or possibly naval, flag.
The late Howard Michael Madaus speculated upon examination of this flag in 2002 informed the collector, Ben Zaricor, and noted flag expert James Ferrigan that the military attribution by Mastai may be correct. In his opinion the size of this flag did conform to known specifications of Naval flags during the Civil War.
An further mystery about this flag related to this flag which was the compounding possibility that the four stars in the corners may have been added to a 30 star flag. With the onset of the American Civil War a backlog of conforming 33 and 34 star flags available to the Navy and Military was severely limited necessitating a culling of inventory stores of the quartermaster and ship's chandler stores of past star counts to convert the older star count flags in 1861 to offical 34 star flags.
The implementation of a Union blockade of Southern ports with increasing number of naval vessels and the dramatic adition of new Army regiments plus the demand by civilians for 34 star flags outstripped available 33 and 34 star flag inventories and production capacity of all types was overwhelmed especially the Navy and Army inventories making conversion flags a sensible though short term solution until production could meet demand. Coincidently when the war began 33 star flags was the official US flag when the war began in April 1861 but because the 34th state had been voted into the union by the US Congress due to become official July 4th 1861 most manufacturers either lowered their production of 33 star flags or ceased production entirely and switched to other war materials or retooled for the production of 34 star flags was extremely low or nonexistent just when demand skyrocketed and wiped out most remaining flag inventories in early 1861.
For the armed forces the only thing required to make 34 star conversion flags conform to regulations the official star count was a star pattern that allowed conversion stars to be added without breaking the symmetry of a star pattern with the correct star count conforming to military and naval requirements that nothing about its design while in use on the open seas or in the field caused confusion among the troops and sailors of the Union forces and maintained it to be recognizable. Therefore for a limited period culled qualified star patterns from older star counts took up some of the demand and adding a star(s) by sewing or painting a cotton or silk star to a flag whatever the material of the flag required proved helpful to meet a critical shortage.
The star pattern has a central rectangle with the stars arranged in five horizontal rows of six stars each. This raises the total to 34 there is an accent star on the canton's hoist and fly ends, between the two top and bottom rows. The placement of these stars creates an optical illusion of two oblate spheroids or compressed ovals; unintentionally resembling stylized halos.
The Mastai collection was the result of 50 years of collecting, research and study by the late husband-wife team. Mastai, started collecting in the mid 20th century and amassed the greatest private flag collection in the United States; which he detailed in his ground breaking book The Stars and The Stripes; The American Flag from Birth of the Republic to the Present, published by Alfred Knopf, New York 1973. It was hailed as a revelation of the American Flag as art and as social history.
It is recommended that a textile examination be made of the four stars in the corner focusing on the thread comparison of those 30 stars in the canton that might be original to the late 1840s.
Publication History:
Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, The Stars and The Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the republic to the Present, Knopf, New York, 1973.
ZFC Noteworthy Flag
Provenance:
• Acquired by Mr. & Mrs. Boleslaw & Marie-Louise D'Otrange Mastai, New York City, and Amagansett, NY, The Mastai Collection, until 2002.
• Sold via Sotheby's Auction in New York City to the Zaricor Flag Collection, 2002.
Deaccessed at auction via Bonham's 21 November 2023, Auction #BOK23110NY, - 28447 -
Lot #99
Sources:
Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange, The Stars and The Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the republic to the Present, Knopf, New York, 1973.
34 Star Flag - (1861-1863) (U.S.), Flags of the World, 27 April 2012, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-1861.html
Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection
