An Imperial Chinese junk pennant captured during the First China War 1839-42. It is part of a collection belonging to Sir Robert Oliver (1783-1848), Superintendent of the Indian Navy.
The hand sewn flag is made of damask woven silk with a cloud pattern and a batten inserted in the hoist. It has parallel sides with a swallowtail. The design has a yellow strip down the centre with four groups of three bars (trigrams) applied in silver foil, within a red border.
According to the Da Qing Huidian Tu ('Illustrated Collected Statutes of the Great Qing'), some military flags had pennants attached above the main flag. The design of these pennants consisted of flames and flashes. However, none of the patterns illustrated in the 'Collected Statutes' exactly matches this example.
Sir Robert Oliver became Superintendent of the Indian Navy in 1837, a post he would hold until his death on 5 August 1848. The Indian Navy was the naval arm of the Honourable East India Company. It provided steamers that played a crucial role in naval operations during the First China War as were able to penetrate the interior of the country along its rivers.
Chinese junk pennant
Date
circa 1842
date QS:P571,+1842-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
Dimensions
Frame: 1120 mm x 440 mm x 48 mm;Flag: 6 in x 40 in
Notes
This object was sighted as being on display during the Collections Inventory Project (2001-2005). It will need to be checked for object numbers and its condition activity updated.
The original artefact or artwork has been assessed as public domain by age, and faithful reproductions of the two dimensional work are also public domain. No permission is required for reuse for any purpose.
The text of this image record has been derived from the Royal Museums Greenwich catalogue and image metadata. Individual data and facts such as date, author and title are not copyrightable, but reuse of longer descriptive text from the catalogue may not be considered fair use. Reuse of the text must be attributed to the "National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London" and a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC-SA-3.0 license may apply if not rewritten. Refer to Royal Museums Greenwich copyright.
Other versions
Identifier
InfoField
WAFN: 2C dossier number: item-foreign flags id number: AAA0520
Collection
InfoField
Flags
Licensing
This is a faithful photographic reproduction of a two-dimensional, public domain work of art. The work of art itself is in the public domain for the following reason:
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