Last Letters from Hav (novel)

Last Letters from Hav is a novel by Jan Morris.
Bruce Tindall, 12 October 1995

Hav, the Danzig-like international city from the novel, was given a black-and-white checkered flag precisely because such a flag would not duplicate the colors of any other country, and thus would not imply that Hav was allied with or controlled by any other country.
Bruce Tindall, 12 October 1995

I have drawn the flag of Hav. It is a rather Bavarian design (it is possible).
Ben Felix, 19 February 2012

It is indeed possible, based on the account a black-and-white checkered flag. However, lacking any further data, I think that this excercise in Reconstructive Vexillography is not helpful. Not only is the available data too scarce to allow a useful reconstruction, such reconstruction, if ever done, should follow Occam's razor and be as simple as possible, assuming that anything untoward would have been mentioned. In this case it would be a chequered flag as used in sports.

In this particular case, I'd even argue that a Bavarian lozengy instead of an orthogonal chequy is not only less likely in terms of vexillolographical and textile parsimony, but also disprovable in view of the scarce data available, as a lozengy pattern, even in different colors, would be perceived as Bavarian and thus not meet the condition of not duplicate … any other country, unlike the chequy flag.
António Martins-Tuválkin, 20 February 2012

Introduction

Hav

Suggested designs for the Hav flag