Seven province red ensign
Thats a nice one! Circa 1905 Canadian ensign.
"THE SEVEN-PROVINCE BADGE
Within a year (on June 20, 1871), British Columbia had swollen the ranks to six provinces. British Columbia presented a problem that Manitoba did not. While it had a great seal, still in use from its colonial days, the pattern was completely inappropriate for use as an emblem of the province. The seal showed Queen Victoria with full robes, sceptre and orb, seated on a throne.35
The device adopted as an emblem for British Columbia was the royal crest flanked by the letters B and C, and a wreath of laurel and oak. The origin of the emblem is unknown. It does not seem to have ever been used to produce a six-province badge or ensign.
On July 1, 1873, Prince Edward Island entered Confederation, and, unlike British Columbia, brought with it a great seal readily adaptable as a badge. The seal showed saplings, representing the province, beside a large oak, representing Britain, with the motto, PARVA SUB INGENTI (the small under the protection of the great). It was essentially the same pattern that had appeared on the great seal of Prince Edward Island since 1769 when it was used for what then had been called the Island of Saint John (Īle Saint-Jean).
By late 1874, the devices for British Columbia and Prince Edward Island had been added to the those of the other five provinces.36 The resulting seven-province shield was, by itself, a marvel of quasi-heraldic clutter, but with the addition of a wreath and crown, it became a dog's breakfast of devices. Not content to leave it alone at that, the designers added a beaver to the base of the wreath. The composite was in the best tradition of Canadian compromise: a little something for everyone, and, of course, the result got popularly dubbed the Arms of Canada.
The seven-province Red Ensign was flown enthusiastically and in great numbers across the country for a third of a century. It spoke of Canada, all of its provinces, and its relation to the empire. It was flown on ships, hotels, mine works, stores, manufacturing plants, and private homes. Many pictures survive showing it flying over the Victoria Tower of the pre-1916 parliament buildings. For public occasions, its use seemed required. An observer in the 1890s commented that parliamentary usage is to hoist the Canadian Red Ensign over the central tower of the Parliament Buildings for the opening and closing of parliament and for special occasions such as national holidays,37 and that the ensign hoisted "is the erroneous flag, so commonly everywhere displayed at that." He further complained that:
When the Intercolonial Conference met at Ottawa, in 1894, the House being in session, there floated from the Parliament tower, from the Department blocks, and from half of the public and private buildings in town, a collection of ensigns, with the Dominion badge in all forms of incorrectness, garlands, and the Dominion badge, in many case, about twice as large as the Imperial Union Jack itself!38
Usually the seven-province ensign is easily recognizable in pictures of the time by its familiar white roundel even when details of the badge are indecipherable. The white roundel was rarely used for earlier ensigns, never for later ones, and of all the seven-province ensigns the author has seen, only one early example did not place the badge on a white roundel.
The use of the seven-province shield was not confined to ensigns; it appeared everywhere. Occasionally accompanied by the wreath, but always with the crown, it was widely consumed by the public on statues, book covers, spoons, china and jewellery. Illustrations of the seven-province ensign were used on everything from Victorian cheesecake to the government's general service medal awarded in 1898 to those who repulsed the Fenian raids. The seven-province badge was the strident statement of Canadian identity of the late nineteenth century.
As these aberrant ensigns bore a crown, they underwent a change in 1901. During the Victorian era, the Saint Edward's crown (with the depressed arches) had been used, but upon the accession of Edward VII, in 1901, the (Tudor) crown with raised arches was adopted. The seven-province ensign with the Tudor crown continued until late in the first decade of the twentieth century. It began to be supplanted by the nine-province ensign in 1907."
Source: http://www.fraser.cc/FlagsCan/Nation/Ensigns.html
Similar example at: http://collections.civilization.ca/p...hp?irn=1369001
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