35-Star US Flag.
This is a large hand and machine sewn, double appliqué, 35-star cotton flag. The flag's history is unknown but it was formerly flag # 236 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.

Cotton became a popular substitute fabric during the American Civil War and the combination of both hand and machine stitching is a common feature on Civil War flags. This flag has a blue cotton hoist and multiple weaves of cotton, likely indicating a vernacular rather than a professionally made flag.

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.

Provenance: Acquired by the Zaricor Flag Collection in 2002 from the Mastai Flag Collection through auction at Sotheby's of New York City.

ZFC Noteworthy Flag

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.

35 Star Flag - (1863-1865) (U.S.), Flags of the World, 27 April 2012, from: http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/us-1863.html

Image Credits:
Zaricor Flag Collection