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Editor's Note: In November, Jorge Candeias began reviewing certain items regarding flag types on FOTW. This series is still on-going as the November material was being edited.
Vertically tricoloured triangular flags can be subdivided according to the apparent proportions of the three bands. There are a number of possible variations of these, but only the flags with three equal bands pass 10 instances, so the numbers become:
Equal 43 89,58% Unequal 5 10,42% Total 48 By countries, the distribution goes: Equal (43) Mexico 32 74,42% France 5 11,63% Belgium 2 4,65% Others 4 9,30% Unequal (5) One flag per country
Those flags that have equal bands can be further divided amongst those that don't have other basic design elements and those that do. But this last group is composed by one flag, so the numbers become:
Simple 42 97,67% Others 1 2,33% Total 43 By countries, the distribution goes: Simple (42) Mexico 32 76,19% France 5 11,90% Belgium 2 4,76% Others 3 7,14% Others (1) It's a Danish flag (with a triangular canton)
A more varied type of flag would here suffer other kinds of subdivision, but this one, with the domain mexican flags have, is divided between green-white-red tricolours and other tricolours:
Green-White-Red 33 78,57% Others 9 21,43% Total 42 By countries, the distribution goes: Simple (33) Mexico 32 96,97% Italy 1 3,03% Others (9) France 5 55,56% Belgium 2 22,22% Others 2 22,22%
The next subdivision of the larger group considers the presence and placement of charges in the flags. The only subgroup that reaches 10 instances is that of flags with charges (or sets of charges) centered in the central band and in the hoist band. There's no easy and accurate terminology for this, but I use "Center and Hoist" as a working shortcut:
Center and Hoist 27 81,82% Others 6 18,18% Total 33 By countries, the distribution goes: Center and hoist (27) Mexico 26 96,30% Italy 1 3,70% Others (6) All Mexican All of the "center and hoist" flags include a COA, and the vast majority also include stars, so I used this to make the next subdivision: COA and stars 26 96,30% Others 1 3,70% Total 27 By countries, the first group only has Mexican flags, the second group is the Italian flag.
And the next subdivision is the last one. These mexican flags have different numbers of stars centered in the hoist band (1, 2 or 3), and we can use these to subdivide them. However, the only group that reaches 10 instances is that of flags with only one star:
One star 13 50% Others 13 50%
Horizontally tricoloured triangular flags have the same basic subdivisions vertically tricoloured triangular flags do, but they are fewer in number and the various kinds of flags are more balanced. The first cnsequence is that also here flags with equal bands are the only cathegory to reach 10 instances:
Equal 14 82,35% Unequal 3 17,65% Total 17 By countries, the distribution goes: Equal (14) Mexico 5 35,71% Germany 4 28,57% Others 5 35,71% Unequal (3) One flag per country The second consequence is that this is their only subdivision.
Triangular flags can carry crosses throughout (these are the only crosses that concern us here) in several different ways. But by far the most common of these ways is crosses with straight arms, disposed horizontally and vertically. The abundance of these passes all other so widely that they compose the only subcathegory to reach 10 inscances in this group (that is not so small anymore):
Horizontal 88 95,65% Others 4 4,35% Total 92 By countries, the distribution goes: Horizontal (88) Spain 14 15.91% France 13 14,77% Italy 9 10,23% Austria-Hungary 4 4,55% Portugal 4 4,55% Others 44 50,00% Others (4) Germany 2 50% Others 2 50%
Horizontal crosses can be of several different types. They can be fimbriates or simple, they can be centered or off-centered and, if off-centered, they can display one of several different kinds of off-centeredness. In triangular flags, however, only two kinds of flags show more than 10 examples: flags with simple off-centered crosses and flags with off-centered fimbriated crosses. These are all skewed towards the hoist. Numerically, this means:
Simple off-centered 59 67,05% Fimbriated off-centered 21 23,86% Others 8 9,09% Total 88 By countries, the distribution goes: Simple off-centered (59) Spain 12 20.34% France 8 13,56% Italy 8 13,56% Portugal 3 5,08% Signal flags 3 5,08% Others 25 42,37% Fimbriated off-centered (21) France 3 14,29% Austria-Hungary 2 9,52% Germany 2 9,52% Spain 2 9,52% Others 12 57,12% Others (8) France 4 50% Ecuador 2 25% Others 2 25%
Fimbriated crosses can have a simple fimbriation of more complex fimbriations. In triangular flags, however, the number of fimbriations is only either one or two, and that's the only subdivision of this cathegory, since further potential subdivisions don't reach 10 items:
One fimbriation 16 76,19% Two fimbriations 5 23,81% Total 21 By countries, the distribution goes: One fimbriation (16) Austria-Hungary 2 12,5% France 2 12,5% Others 12 75,0% Two fimbriations (5) Germany 2 40% Others 3 60%
Simple off-centered crosses can be subdivided by how the background is coloured. Since a cross divides a flag in quarters, these quarters can be all of the same colour, or can display different colours. In triangular flags, only the simplest group, that of monocoloured backgrounds, reaches 10 images, so the subdivision goes:
Simple 45 76,27% Others 14 23,73% Total 59 By countries, the distribution goes: Simple (45) Italy 8 17,78% Spain 5 11,11% France 5 11,11% Portugal 3 6,67% Signal flags 3 6,67% Others 21 46,67% Others (14) Spain 7 50,00% France 2 14,29% Others 5 35,71% Blue 18 40,00% White 14 31,11% Red 11 24,44% Others 2 4,44% Total 45 By countries, the distribution goes: Blue (18) Spain 2 11,11% France 2 11,11% Greece 2 11,11% Portugal 2 11,11% Signal flags 2 11,11% Others 8 44,44% White (14) France 3 21,43% Austria-Hungary 2 14,29% Spain 2 14,29% Italy 2 14,29% Others 5 35,71% Red (11) Italy 5 45,45% Others 6 54,55% Others (2) One flag per country
The next logical subdivision is by the colour of the cross. Of all these groups, only in that of blue flags there is a subgroup with more than 10 elements: blue flags with white crosses. So:
White cross 14 77,78% Others 4 22,22% Total 18 By countries, the distribution goes: White cross (14) France 2 14,29% Greece 2 14,29% Signal flags 2 14,29% Others 8 57,14% Others (4) One flag per country
Flags with borders can have several types of border, but basically they ban be complete, going all the way around the flag, or incomplete, leaving out one or more of the sides. In triangular flags, this means the following numbers:
Complete 61 57,55% Incomplete 45 42,45% Total 106 By countries, the distribution goes: Complete (61) Germany 20 32,79% USA 8 13,11% Croatia 7 11,48% France 5 8,20% Others 21 34,43% Incomplete (45) Germany 14 31,11% USA 4 8,89% Signal flags 4 8,89% Belgium 3 6,67% UK 3 6,67% Yugoslavia 3 6,67% Others 14 31,11%
Jorge Candeias, November 2003
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