The spring issue of the Dutch vexillological magazine Vlag! is now available online. The magazine is published in Dutch but an English summary can be viewed below.
If you want to receive our magazine as soon as it comes out, please register as a member. You will get Vlag! 25 in your mailbox at the beginning of October.
Articles in Vlag! 24
Flags news from around the world
The Dutch municipalities Leeuwarden and Haarlemmermeer have adopted new flags. The Philippines have founded an autonomous region Bangsamore. Jordan has registered its flag with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in March 2019.
The well-ornamented flag of the municipality of De Ronde Venen
The municipality of De Ronde Venen (province of Utrecht) was founded in 1989 by merging three other municipalities. In 2011 Abcoude was added to the municipality, and a new flag was adopted in 2016. The flag includes a part of the coat of arms of each of the four municipalities.
Bontekoe wanted four-pointed stars in the flag of the province of Drenthe
In February 1947 the Historical Association of Drenthe wanted a flag for the province. To this end, the well-known heraldist G. A. Bontekoe was asked for a design. He started with two historical facts: the distribution of Drenthe in six jurisdictions and the historical importance of the castle of Coevorden. Together with the white and red colours of Saxony and Utrecht, Bontekoe designed six flags. From these one flag was chosen – the current flag of Drenthe – on which the four-pointed stars were replaced by five-pointed stars.
The flag of the Benelux for Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg
In 1944, in London, a partnership between Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxemburg was founded by their respective Governments: the Benelux. In 1951 a newly designed Benelux flag was hoisted at a demonstration of this partnership. Despite the use of the flag at the world exhibition in Brussels in 1958 this flag was never adopted by the people.
A second flag for Vojvodina
In 2016 the autonomous province of Vojvodina in Serbia adopted a second flag on political grounds. This flag was based on the Serbian colours and the coat of arms of Vojvodina from 1848. The two flags are hoisted together with the Serbian flag.
A flag chart of the Austrian Netherlands
The Maritime Museum in Amsterdam has a chart on display with flags of the Austrian Netherlands (Belgium) from 1715 to 1795. The chart contains images of ship’s ensigns as well as a so-called Large Flag (with the Austrian coat of arms), an imperial flag and the flag of Ostende.
The State of Kalat was forced to accede to Pakistan
The Balochistan region in British India – nowadays Southwest Pakistan – consisted of several Khanates. These khanates had some degree of independence within the British Empire. The Khanates Kalat, Makran, Kharan, and Las Bela had their own flags. After the independence of Pakistan the separate khanates were banned, which led to several rebellions in the province of Balochistan. A government in exile was formed, and a flag for Balochistan was adopted.
The Marquesas Islands adopts its unofficial flag
Since 1978 the The Marquesas Islands flew an unofficial flag. The implementation of the matatiki, the face of the God Tiki, on the flag differed between flags. In 2017, in preparation for autonomy within France, the Tattoo-Fellowship Patutiki designed a new form of the matatiki for the official flag.
The creation of flags requires craftsmanship
Report of a visit of the flag factory in Frisian Dokkum by members of the Netherlands Vexillological Association.
