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Iceland - Royal Standard (1905-1945)

Island

Royal standard
Regent's flag
Cigarette card flag

Royal standard

18:25 image by Jan Oskar Engene

The royal standard of Iceland was established by Royal Resolution No. 23 of 5 July 1921, in which the flag is described as follows (in my translation of the Icelandic original): "The Royal flag is sky blue, and in it the white Icelandic falcon, crowned with the Icelandic crown, and facing the hoist. The relationship between the breadth and the length of the flag is 18:25." (Source: Lagasafn. Gildandi lög íslenzk 1931, Reykjavík: Bókadeild Menningarsjóðs, 1932, p. 1617). Apparently, the Royal flag was only used once during the visit of King Christian X to his kingdom of Iceland in 1921 and no model drawing or real flag has survived [see Birgir Thorlacius: "Fáni Íslands og skjaldarmerki, Andvari, 6 (NS), 1964, p. 49]. However, the flag is illustrated in some contemporary sources, cigarette card albums among them.
Jan Oskar Engene, 2 February 2002

Blue and white were considered to be the proper colours of Iceland. As early as 1874, Sigurdur Gudmundsson had made a flag with a blue field and a white falcon with wings stretched out. He flew it during a Royal visit. The perched white falcon on blue was later officially the Royal standard of Iceland. In the Flaggenbuch of the German Navy (1939), the proportions of the royal standard are given as 18:25. The illustration in this book shows a golden royal crown above the falcon (it is not on the bird's head). Most other sources I can find do not mention a crown. The arms at least were almost certainly without it.
Jan Oskar Engene, 24 June 1996

Note that the Royal flag was based on the coat of arms of Iceland established in 1903: The white (naturalistic) falcon. When Iceland became a separate kingdom in 1918, one of the first things undertaken by parliament was to give Iceland a new coat of arms. On 12 February 1919 the coat of arms was changed so that the shield showed the pattern of the national flag of Iceland. The shield was supported by the four guardian spirits of Iceland - the dragon, the bird, the bull and the giant and surmounted by the royal crown of Iceland. Except for the crown, these are still the elements of the coat of arms of Iceland, though the artistic rendering was changed in 1944 when Iceland became a republic. The introduction of the 1919 coat of arms was in a way a snub to the king. The guardian spirits shown in the coat of arms refers to a section of the Heimskringla by Snorri Sturluson (1179-1241), in which a Danish king tries to take Iceland but is driven back by the four spirits guarding Iceland. One contemporary source noted that the "symbolism was not without clarity." So, when time came to make a royal flag, the existing coat of arms, which was also based on the national flag, could not be used and the previous coat of arms, the falcon, was used instead, though crowned with Iceland's own royal crown.
Jan Oskar Engene, 2 February 2002

Regent's flag

image Jan Oskar Engene 16 December 2002

The office of the Regent was established by parliament on 16. June 1941 to exercise the powers of the King. Half a year later, on 9 December 1941, the Regent used his powers to establish a coat of arms and a flag for the office. The resolution of the Regent reads (in my translation from the Icelandic): "The flag of the Regent of Iceland shall be the Icelandic state flag and in the middle of this charged with a capital gold R on a rectangular panel." Model drawings of both the flag and the coat of arms of the Regent accompanied the official announcement of the resolution in the government gazette (Stjórnartiðindi, 1941, A.7, p. 279f). As for the Regent's coat of arms, this was the flag patterned shield surmounted by the ornamental golden R.

When Iceland was proclaimed a republic on 17 July 1944, the office of Regent was replaced by that of the President. The first thing the president did was to sign the laws on the flag of Iceland, which also provided for a customs and post and telegraph flag without crowns.
Jan Oskar Engene 2002-12-16

Cigarette card flag

image by Jan Oskar Engene and António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 October 2024

In a "package" of interesting flag cards collections, n.º 11 of the set (https://www.ebay.com/itm/354528950046 shows what seems to be a long tapering flag, possible triangular, vertically divided in medium light blue at the hoist and white at the fly. The hoist panel is charged with a large white falcon facing the hoist.

This flag is a possibly fanciful variation of an actual flag in use following the adoption of the arms with this blazon (Azure a falcon sejant Argent).

The reconstructed idealized image attached above was made using the royal standard illustration.

António Martins-Tuválkin, 21 October 2024