"A Giant Garage Sale"
Saturday morning, Matthew and I headed out prepared to fight the crowds at a HUGE indoor garage sale/flea market/antique sale/loads of junk sale. Last year over 15,000 people attended this sale. Although we could barely move between the tables and the people, we managed to find a few things. Matthew was able to find a gift for his dad (which I can't say anymore about) and I found a set of three Indonesian woven baskets, all for great deals. When we finally got tired of being pushed, bumped stepped on, etc we decided to leave. As we were headed out, I noticed a very old flag stuck in a pot. We realized it was an old American flag. We decided to fight our way back to the table to ask how much. "Huit euros" was the reply. Eight euros?!? Surely not. The man realized we were Americans and asked if we were buying it to celebrate Obama (everyone in France is REALLY excited). We decided for 8 euros it was worth it. As Matthew was paying the man asked if we had seen the blood stains on the flag! We headed outside laughing that we must be Americans- we go to a French flea market and leave with an American flag!
Matthew counted and there are 48 stars. After some research we found out that the flag had 48 stars from 1912-1959 (which would include both world wars). I found a website run by vexillologists (flag researchers). We emailed the USA buff for the sight, who forwarded our email to a friend, Mr. Artimovich, who is a long-time antique American flag collector. Here is his response:
"...forwarded your message to me as he knows me as a long-time collector of antique American flags. 48 star flags were used from 1912 to 1958 in the USA. While the materials and methods of making flags changed over that 47 year period, the various commercial flagmakers changed over at various times, and very often offered flags of cotton, wool, silk, rayon, nylon, nylon/wool, etc, at the same time, so it could be very difficult, if not impossible, to pin down the date of manufacture of your flag. If it was home-made in France to celebrate liberation by American troops, then you would have to research the origin of both the fabric and sewing thread and perhaps even the different dyes used, but that would analysis would cost far more than the value of the flag. If there are any labels or manufacturers name on the heading or other distinguishing features about the flag, that might help. But all in all if the flag were used to welcome American troops I think it would be hard to tell whether the flag is 1918 or 1944 vintage - flag materials and methods did not change radically over that 28 year span. If it were a US made flag I could offer a fair guess that a flag made of wool bunting was more likely (i.e. 60-40) to date from WWI while a cotton bunting flag is more likely to be WW II."
Matthew and I studied the flag more closely, it is made of cotton, and it definitely seems home-made to us. It even appears to be made "backwards" so that the front of the flag would have the stars on the right side. Still, it is a pretty cool find, and for eight euros! Here are some pictures:
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