Civil Pennant of the Kingdom of Italy.
Small pennants like this, bearing the uncrowned 1866-1946 Italian arms would have been used primarily for decorations or patriotic purposes. They could have also been used on small Italian pleasure crafts or other small boats.

The Italian colors have their genesis during the Napoleonic Wars but took the vertical orientation of the stripes from the tricolor of France when the Cisalpine Republic adopted the flag in 1798. The Kingdom of Italy continued to use the red, white and green tricolor of the 1848 Kingdom of Sardinia but defaced it with the Savoy arms within a blue border.

Provenance: Acquired in 2008 at an Internet auction.

ZFC Noteworthy Flag

Sources:


Italy, Flags of the World, 20 May 2012, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/it.html

Flag of Italy, Wikipedia, 20 May 2012, from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Italy

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection