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Unidentified Flags or Ensigns (2003)

Flags submitted in 2003

Below is a series of images of flags that have been provided to FOTW, but which we have been unable to recognise. If you can identify any of these flags, please let us know! Contact the director. See also our page of Identified Flags to see flags we have figured out through this page.

Flag at Thames Frost Fair, London

Here is a flag from an illustration of London river Thames in ice in the XIXth century. Here is the text around the picture:
A FROST FAIR ON THE THAMES. BEFORE SIR JOSEPH BAZALGETTE BUILT THE EMBANKMENTS IN THE 1840s THE THAMES WAS WIDER, SHALLOWER AND FLOWED MORE SLOWLY. THUS IT SOMETIMES FROZE OVER IN COLD WINTERS AND QUITE LARGE FAIRS COULD BE HELD ON THE ICE.
What is this flag ?
Thierry Gilabert, 30 December 2003

Malatee?

by Jaume Ollé

From an old Japanese plate dated 1876. I can't identify this country (Malatee). It is probably related with Bengala (flag of the nawab of Bengala?)
Jaume Ollé, 17 Jan 2000

If this is what I think it is, Malatee is the old name for Malatya, a city high in the mountains of central Turkey. It was the site of an infamous massacre of Armenians during or around the time of World War One. Could this be where the flag is from?
James Dignan, 26 August 2003

I cannot give an exact answer but most probably this flag has nothing to do with Malatya. First, Jaume Ollè says that it is from an "old Japanese plate". It is not so likely a Turkish symbol is on such an item in year 1876. Second, although I cannot say that I'm an expert in Turkish symbolism, I can say that the flag does not "seem to have" Turkish figures. Third, in Turkey and in this part of the world, there is no a strong flag tradition like in the west. In the Ottoman Empire, I know that there are flags of some distant administrative units. I don't think that a city flag existed. Perhaps it can be claimed that it is the symbol of a religious or social group in Malatya (or in all Anatolia). But it won't be far than speculation. The date of the plate (1876) and that of the so-called "Armenian massacre" (1895) are not far away. Did you mention it because you think that there can be a relation or just to give information about the city? In short, my opinion is that Bengala or another far- eastern origin is much more probable.
Onur Özgün, 16 February 2004

I've done a little more searching in an old encyclopedia to look for other possibilities, and I note a Malate in the Phillipines, which is now a central part of the city of Manila. I suppose it's possible it might be connected with that...?
James