Last modified: 2024-03-03 by 
zachary harden
Keywords: ufe | unidentified flags | 2018 |
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Below is a series of images of flags that have been provided to FOTW; some we have recognized, and some we have been unable to recognize. If you can help us identify any of these flags, please let us know! Contact the: UFE Editor.
Identification Key:
= Positive ID (Positive Identification)
= Tentative ID (Tentative Identification)
= Some Speculation Some Speculation
Image from Brian Mills, 4 January 2018
Enamel pin badge. The horizontal green white red tricolour of North Rhine-Westphalia defaced with a white lozenge featuring the arms of Duisburg and Duisburg-Ruhrort, a mural crown and the letter "L". Lots of information, but still no idea what it is!
Brian Mills, 4 January 2018
Anything on the back side of the pins?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 4 January 2018
Some Speculation
Image from Brian Mills, 4 January 2018
Enamel pin badge. Red flag with yellow sunrise and blue and white waves in bottom half. Reminiscent of Kiribati without the frigate bird.
That the waves follow the contours of the badge raises the possibility that the waves are actually flat rather than wavy.
Brian Mills, 4 January 2018
Anything on the back side of the pins?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 4 January 2018
While I do not think UFE18-02 has anything to with The Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies (a.k.a. Scottish Darien Company) which had a brief existence between 1695 and 1707, the flag depicted on the pin surely does look a lot like the company's flag from 1698.
Daniel Lund, 9 January 2018
Some Speculation
Image from Brian Mills, 4 January 2018
Enamel pin badge. Blue flag, red saltire defaced by central white disc. - Letters "TVCC" or "VTCC".
Brian Mills, 4 January 2018
Anything on the back side of the pins?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 4 January 2018
Positive ID
Image from Brian Mills, 5 January 2018
Enamel pin badge (with what I would think of as a European rather than UK fitting). Green flag with white lozenge and blue capital letter "E".
Brian Mills, 5 January 2018
Image from Andreas Bühne, 27 February 2021
This might be the Willy Ertel Inland Shipping Company flag, which was headquartered in Hamburg.
My father had a large collection of table flags of shipping lines, shipyards and many others items dealing with shipping lines or yards. When he died I inherited the whole collection of more than 3,300 flags. The collection is now online at my website Marcollect.de and what little is currently known about this flag is located here on the website. You may select which language to use on the website.
Andreas Bühne, 27 February 2021
Image from Brian Mills, 5 January 2018
Enamel Cap badge? Has two loops/lugs and a split pin so likely part of uniform. Red flag with central (not offset) white cross and capital letter "A" in canton.
Brian Mills, 5 January 2018
Positive ID
Image from Brian Mills, 5 January 2018
Enamel badge. Twin split prong fitting so probably cap badge within a generic bullion wreath. White flag with blue capital letter "P".
Brian Mills, 5 January 2018
Image from Brian Mills, 18 August 2019
Image from Brian Mills, 7 January 2018
Enamel badge. Twin split prong fitting so probably cap badge within a generic bullion wreath. Red flag with white lozenge and blue capital letter "I".
Brian Mills, 7 January 2018
Image from Brian Mills, 7 January 2018
Enamel stick pin badge. Burgee - propeller/compass rose/cross/crown.
Brian Mills, 7 January 2018
Some Speculation
Image from Brian Mills, 7 January 2018
Enamel pin badge. Red burgee with asymmetric green (definitely not
blue!) cross on white cross. (This one uses the colours of Bornholm, Denmark)
Brian Mills, 7 January 2018
Possibly Hungarian Sailing Association? The pin depicts their flag, albeit without the national coat-of-arms in the centre.
Jeroen van Leeuwen, 20 February 2019
Positive ID
Image from Brian Mills, 8 January 2018
Enamel pin badge. Pale blue burgee, Trident capital letter "M"
Brian Mills, 8 January 2018
#18a
#18b
#18c
#18d
Images from Roger Moyer, 18 January 2018
I think we are looking at a souvenir pin of Club Med dating from the late 50s or early 60s. Image #18a comes from a chronological slide show of club med logos on the home page of Club Med China titled "And the Trident was born...." dated 1965.
A similar logo (#18b) is shown on stamps on this Club Med membership card, although the logos are not exactly the same.
The third particular iteration (#18c) of this logo found on the Pinterest website also matches the logo on the UFE pin. (source) Unfortunately with images from Pinterest you must be a member to get any more information.
I also found this burgee (#18d) with the logo (but not in color) on the top banner of the Club Med newsletter Le Trident .
I hope this will give us enough to confirm the pin as a Club Med souvenir of some sort?
Roger Moyer, 18 January 2018
Indeed, it was the old logo version for Club Med and here is some more information about this French company.
"Club Méditerranée SAS (English: Mediterranean Club, Joint Stock Company), commonly known as Club Med, is a French public limited company specializing in the sale of all-in holidays at a number of "vacation villages" which it owns and operates in a number of (usually exotic) locations around the world.
The company was established on April 27, 1950. by Belgian entrepreneur Gérard Blitz. Blitz, a Belgian, had opened a low-priced summer colony of tents on the Island of Majorca. Gilbert Trigano supplied the tents, and in 1953 Blitz wooed him into a partnership, as the inventor (Blitz) of the 'all-inclusive' holiday concept. The first official Club Med was built the next year in Palinuro, Centola, Salerno, Italy. The original villages were simple: Members stayed in unlit straw huts on a beachfront, sharing communal washing facilities. Such villages have been replaced with modern blocks or huts with ensuite facilities."
Sources: (source #1 and source #2)
The old logo comes also in different color combinations, as seen here (image and source) in a membership card featuring different stickers for each year attended. Picture caption reads: "1957 Club Méditerranée card, double-sided, with trident stickers glued to each holiday period."
The current company's pennant features the current logo over a horizontal white pennant, as seen here (image and source) - first pennant from left to right.
There's also a variant pennant, featuring a stylish old trident logo version, over a white background. (image and source)
Also, the current company flag is a white horizontal background with the logo in the middle. (image and source)
A parody of the company's flag featured the Chinese flag, but instead of the bigger yellow star in the canton, it features the old stylish logo, also in yellow, as seen here (image and source)
For additional information go to Club Med (official website)
Esteban Rivera, 19 January 2018
Positive ID
Image from Brian Mills, 8 January 2018
Enamel stick pin badge. Burgee - propeller/cross.
Brian Mills, 8 January 2018
Image from Pete Loeser, 10 March 2018
While checking the links Peter Hans gave on UFE17-32 (Unidentified Czech Sports Flag) one link transported me to this chart. I noticed the flag above on the chart was very similar to our mystery pin. Not being fluent in Czech I was unable to translate what appears to be the following Czech text "PŘĘDSĘDA ČSL.ASOCIACĘ" under the flag. (I possibly have choosen the wrong Czech characters) Does anybody know what this says? These two flags sure look like they could be related, but probably not.
Pete Loeser, 10 March 2018
The inscription is in fact "PŘEDSEDA ČSL. ASOCIACE" - what looks like the diacritic sign named "ogonek" (not used in either Czech or Slovak) is actually a "calligraphic" addition to the basic letter form, also to those of other letters. The meaning is "President of Czechoslovakian Association".
Tomislav Todorovic, 11 March 2018
The Czech chart you refer to refers itself to the Union Internationale Motonautique (UIM). The UIM website does indeed show the same flag as the chart. The Czech chart suggests that the "President of the Czechoslovak Association" was allowed to fly a UIM burgee. I think we can identify the pin as a UIM pin.
Jeroen van Leeuwen, 16 January 2019
Image from Brian Mills, 8 January 2018
Enamel badges. Twin split prong fitting so probably cap badge within a generic bullion wreath.
I think that these are probably river/maritime pilots' cap badges, but any more specific information would be greatly appreciated.
Brian Mills, 8 January 2018
Some Speculation
Image from Harald Prins, 11 January 2017
I am searching for the identity of a ship - a full-rigged four mast ship depicted on a marine painting by William Mitchell of Maryford (Cumbria). I could not find the one in the top of the ship's mainmast. Based on conjecture, I have reason to think she is the Alice A. Leigh, launched in Whitehaven in 1889, a seaport on the Solway Firth only about a dozen miles from the artist's hometown. I wonder if you have ever seen this particular flag and, if so (unless it is artistic fiction), if you know which company it represents. (Photo Source)
Harald Prins, 11 January 2018
There's probably no easy answer to this one. Trove gives her owners as: "Owners Alice A. Leigh Co. Ltd. (J Joyce) reg. Liverpool: then Galgate Shipping Co. Ltd (J Joyce and Co.): then New York and Pacific Shipping Co. Ltd ..." (source)
According to The Maritime History Virtual Archives, the sale to the New York & Pacific Sailing Ship Co., Liverpool was in 1918 or 1919. (source)
As we know the year is 1894, we can therefore exclude the latter. (We do mention the New York & Pacific Steamship Co., as a subsidiary of the Grace Line, but we don't know the subsidiary's flag.
We do have Galgate Co., Ltd., but this is clearly not the flag we're after, yet note the pattern of a saltire in red and white with a single letter in the middle (commonly the initial of the owner's last name).
Thus, the company we're after must be Alice A. Leigh Co. Ltd. of J. Joyce. Judging by the name, this is a one ship company. So was the Galgate Co. originally, but at some point apparently the company came to hold the other ships as well. By 1912, Lloyd's Book of House Flags and Funnels [LLo12] lists just the one entry, Galgate Co., for Joyce. Apparently this merger of the companies was before that time. It may prove very difficult to determine the flag of a single ship company before 1900, unless the builder has recorded the flag it went to sea under. Judging by what we see, and what we know of the other J. Joyce flag, though, I'd speculate that the Alice A. Leigh Co. Ltd. had a red saltire on white, bearing in the middle a red J on white.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 March 2018
Although the original poster is satisfied that his speculation is likely correct. I'm not, as yet. I also wonder whether house flags were flown while on route. Or more in general, I wonder what flags were flown while the ship was en route?
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 2 March 2018
Positive ID
Images from Victor Lomantsov, 11 January 2018
A mysterious red flag with logo found on a Soviet advertising poster (1928) for American "A. Hammer" pencils. (big image)
Victor Lomantsov, 11 January 2018
These pencils were the products of Armand Hammer (1898-1990), a prominent American businessman, philanthropist and communist sympathizer.(source)
Miles Li, 11 January 2018
The poster is a publicity image for the pencil brand "A. Hammer". It
has been claimed that it was done by Vladimir Avgustovich Stenberg (Владимир Августович Стенберги)
and Georgiy Avgustovich (Георгий Августович Стенберги), known as the Stenberg brothers (Братья Стенберг) in a Constructivism technique.
The flag in question is a swallow tailed red background, featuring a square emblem in the canton, made up of a (supposedly) naval-like emblem design displaying a crossed hammer and anchor pointing upwards, in white over light blue background, (resembling pretty much the canton in the US Flag, and coming out of the top left corner, are eight red rays over a white background (very similar to the Japanese Naval Ensign). In the middle, in black background, the statue of liberty (featured from the waist up). The pencil is featured on the New York skyline with an arriving ship at night.
The pencil featured in the poster reads (from top to bottom, written vertically): naval-like emblem design displaying a crossed hammer and anchor pointing upwards in black - A. HAMMER "DIAMOND" (diamond being a type of pencil manufactured by the company). Below, the following inscription in three rows, from top to bottom (in Cyrillic script) and in capitals:
АМЕИРКАНСКАЯ ПРОМЫШЛЕННАЯ КОНЦЕССИЯ А.ГАММЕР = Industrial Concession A. Hammer
КАРАНДАШИ ПЕРЬЯ = Pencils (and) Pens
МОСКВА ♦ НЬЮ·ИОРК = Moscow ♦ New York
The A. Hammer Pencil factory began work in Moscow in April of 1926 as a private American industrial concession. On February 19, 1930, the factory was taken over by the state and was renamed the "Sacco and Vanzetti Pencil Factory" (Карандаш фабрики им. Сакко и Ванцетти) after Sacco and Vanzetti. They were Italian immigrant workers who were executed in the United States in 1927 for espionage
making them martyrs to the socialist cause. Thus, the pencil (company and) brand A. Hammer lasted a little less than four years [in the USSR before the name change].
Esteban Rivera, 11 January 2017
Positive ID
Image from Surapong J., 16 January 2018
Do you know what this flag is? It looks military.
Surapong J., 16 January 2018
This left me a bit curious about the reason for the use of the rank symbols: Private First Class, Sergeant and Top Sergeant, I believe? No cadet officers at the Academy?
Pete Loeser, 20 January 2018
Some Speculation
Images from Victor Lomantsov, 1 February 2018
Especially for "flag detectives" - First of several unknown Russian flags.
Загадочный флаг, предположительно используемый во время парада ко дню ВМФ в Ленинграде или Севастополе...
[loose translation] Mysterious flag, presumably used during NAVY day parade in Leningrad or Sevastopol. (Photo source) (source)
Victor Lomantsov, 1 February 2018
Image from Matthew Lewis , 5 February 2018
I think the inner circle is a globe, but I have no idea what front it is. I'm pretty sure that the four lower lines are letters, but it is too blurry to read. Also the ring may have ridges on the inside, but again it is blurry. I don't know much about the colors so I left it the same as the photo.
Matthew Lewis, 5 February 2018
The image's title reads: Фото ВМФ Флаг Парад СССР (Photo of the Navy Flag of the USSR Parade). As Victor mentions, this flag is seen during a Naval parade and dates from the 1946-1959 period. The picture was taken in St. Petersburg according to the original source.
Esteban Rivera, 7 February 2018
Positive ID
Image from Victor Lomantsov, 1 February 2017
Especially for "flag detectives" - Second of several unknown Russian flags.
В карманном справочнике флагов начала ХХ века на страничке с изображениями флагов российских судоходных компаний приведен некий белый флаг с прямым синим крестом и буквами WAAB (предположительно финский или польский...)
[loose translation] From a Pocket Handbook of early 20th century Russian shipping companies flags. It shows a white flag with Blue Cross and the text letters of WAAB (presumably either Finnish or Polish ...) (source)
Victor Lomantsov, 1 February 2017
The flags are also located in another section of Victor's website titled "Departmental flags of the Russian Empire (part 3) Shipping companies, shipping companies, private vessels". (image) (source)
The original image is one of the ten featured pennants in four rows in the same template. From left to right, and top to bottom
On the first row:
Well, that source pictures a flag WNÅB, so either Wasa-Nordsjö Ång-Båt or Wasa-Nordsjö Ångbåt-Bolag. The latter sounds more likely as the company is actually referred to as Nordsjöbolaget. (To people from Vaasa, the "Wasa" part obviously is neither very meaningful nor very distinctive.)
Victor's source, on the other hand, clearly shows an Å on the flag of the Finnish, making it unlikely that A would be used for Ångbåts. Still, we'd need someone with (access to) "Russian flags and flags of foreign countries" to be sure.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 18 February 2018
