Union Flag age?

[bananamafia]

Hi everyone, ive had this union flag on my wall for a few years and never really thought about the date of it.
I was wondering if anyone could help by the stictching ect...

The colours are slightly darker than they look on the pics due to the camera, but it appears to be made of linen like material, and it is quite moth eaten.

Anyway let me know your thoughts.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Union Flags are very hard to date. But this is nicely made from multi parts and has period age. You could call it "wartime" and be pretty safe.

Cheers, Ade.

[bananamafia]

Thanks ade, its nice to know it can stay where it is, just had a moment of wondering if it was a repro.

[Wagriff]

Very doubtful it is a repro, but I would take a shot at dating it in the WWI era myself.

[bananamafia]

Very doubtful it is a repro, but I would take a shot at dating it in the WWI era myself.

thanks wagriff, what would make you think ww1 instead of ww2?
just trying to learn a little!!

[Adrian Stevenson]

As William has said, it could equally be WW1. The thinking behind this is the multi part construction.

By WW2 many flag makers had gone to cheaper screenprinting. But like any product, it all depended on what the customer wanted as regards to quality and price.

Cheers, Ade.

[Wagriff]

The material it's constructed out of is the main clue, in my opinion. When you get cloth that's been exposed to the elements that's from 100 years ago and then stored for a long time, it get's that thin almost translucent look to it. You said that it's made from some sort of linen? By WWII, I would have expected to see a heavier cotton or wool bunting material for the body of it. I've got a US flag from 1880-1905 era and it has that same appearance. When you compare it to a WWII era, the difference in looks and feel are considerable.
American flags are easy to date-you just count the stars! But in the case of a Union Jack, it gets trickier, as it could be anywhere from WWI on up to the 30's and later and still look pretty much the same. But, when you look at your flag and see all of the very elaborate small parts that were individually sewn into it, I'd still have to opt for WWI era give or take a few years. WWII, they were being mass produced on a much larger scale and on modern machines, so to see this type of stitching and piecing together on this one....? I'd say it's a safe bet it's fairly close to WWI.

[bananamafia]

brilliant, thanks again for the info, I might move it to the smle and p14 then.