Portland Flag Association 1 ISSN 2474-1787 Portland Flag Association “Free, and Worth Every Penny!” Issue 80 February 2020 INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Rating Flag Designs Rating Flag Designs 1 In this issue we present the work on “Design expressiveness”, January 2020 Flutterings 2 of a young Russian vexillologist “Color perfection”, “Symbolic Alfred Znamierowski 1940–2019 5 who has developed an extensive perfection”, and extending the Portland’s Flag — a Russian View 6 methodology to rate the designs K-Scale to add “expressiveness” 8 Roundup of flags (see p. 6). as a sixth factor. Mystery Flag 9 What’s in a Word? | Flag for 2020 9 Nikita Dudko (a VT reader for Each drills more deeply, exploring 10 Coats of Arms of Irish Counties several years), of Seversk, in sub-components of each concept. The Flag Quiz 11 Tomskaya Oblast, has sent an While some of the ratings are Portland Flag Miscellany 12 Next Meeting 12 example of his work in the form of based on objective measures, many his rating of the flag of Portland. rely on a subjective assessment. www.portlandflag.org Although that may be criticized Since the publications of Good Flag, as reflecting personal opinion, in Bad Flag, several in our field have practice it may be mitigated by attempted to create objective asking a number of people to measures of flag designs—possibly engage in the ratings. the first being what Mason Kaye called the “K-Scale”, which award- Vexillology and vexillography are ed 0, 1, or 2 points based on the richer for Nikita’s work. While extent a flag followed each of the part of flag design will always five GFBF principles. The result, evade systematic analysis—due to a score from 0 to 10, matched the historical, cultural, aesthetic, and 0–10 scale used in NAVA’s city artistic considerations—kudos to and state/provincial flag design all who are exploring the quantita- surveys, facilitating quantitative tive edges of flag design. comparisons (see Raven 8, “Good Flag, Bad Flag and the Great We find it interesting and affirming NAVA Flag Survey of 2001” and that Mr. Dudko’s calculated com- Raven 12, “The American City Flag posite rating of 8.2 for the Portland Survey of 2004”.) flag (expressed on a 0–10 scale), closely parallels the result of the A wise nation encourages the development and use of symbols Mr. Dudko has built on that work, 2004 NAVA survey, 8.38. of sovereignty, community, family developing five new scales focused life, and individual achievement. — Canadian Heraldic Authority If you wish to compliment the editor, or to contribute in the future, contact Ted Kaye at 503-223-4660 or [email protected]. If you wish to complain, call your mother. 2 The Vexilloid Tabloid January 2020 Flutterings You Need to Know In our January meeting, hosted by Mike Hale at his new home, 11 PFA members enjoyed three hours of flags and conversation. In his role as host, Mike moderated the discussion. Michael Orelove reminded us that Oregon’s 160th birthday will be 14 February and gave out little Oregon flags (see p. 8). He also brought a U.S. flag to be retired. Host Mike Hale explains the flags adorning the great wall of the art studio in his new home in Beaverton. Max Liberman sought loans of Mike Hale displayed some treas- flags for an Arab Cultural Festival ures from his stepfather (and flag in February—it currently needs store founder) Elmer’s collecting Michael Orelove shows a U.S. flag Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Sudan, and led a tour of his art studio with destined for ceremonial disposal. and Jordan. He is involved with its great wall festooned with the Arab Studies area of Portland flags—among them one of the first State University, tutoring in Arabic 24 Antarctica flags flown over the among other engagements. White Continent in 2002 by Ted Kaye (complete with the certificate validating its provenance). Scott Mainwaring introduced a document from the Russian Heral- dic Council giving in extensive detail (20,000+ words) its rules and regulations regarding municipal symbols (including flags), congrat- ulated the effort to create flags for Cincinnati’s neighborhoods (perhaps the first-ever such effort since Portland’s), and described the intricacy of Iranian armed forces Max Liberman points out the finer Scott Mainwaring shows Iranian flags flags and religious banners. distinctions of Middle Eastern flags. of current interest. February 2020 Portland Flag Association 3 Fred Paltridge shares recent Jessie Spillers discusses the Alice Paul Oregonian clippings. flag of U.S. women’s suffrage. Fred Paltridge brought Oregonian clippings with photos depicting an Jessie Spillers commented on the Iranian funeral replete with flags centennial of Women’s Suffrage in and mourning banners. the U.S. and the impending ratifi- cation of the ERA by Virginia. John Niggley brought a flag advancing workplace safety from David Koski commented exten- David Koski contemplates recent flags a one-time vendor, Air Products, sively on the adoption of flags by adopted by Scottish counties. and showed a World Flag he’d Scottish counties, especially how recently acquired in a shop on many favor the Nordic cross rather David Ferriday found himself N. Mississippi Avenue. than the Scottish saltire. intrigued by the NAVA 28 flag exhibited by Mike (representing the annual meeting hosted in Portland in 1994 which gave birth to the PFA). David Ferriday muses on the NAVA 28 flag (created by PFA John Niggley shows the World Flag (developed by sometime PFA members Founder Harry Oswald). John and Paul Carroll) he’d found recently in a Portland store, while Max Liberman looks on. Continued on next page 4 The Vexilloid Tabloid Patrick Genna explains the Kanak flag of Nouvelle-Calédonie. Patrick Genna provided a handout on the flag of New Caledonia, described how it has flown along- side the French tricolor since 2010, Ted Kaye unfurls a replica of the 1503 Spanish naval flag of the Expeditions to and showed one he had bought the Indies, with the quartered arms of Castile and Leon. on-line, part of his quest to acquire interesting and intriguing flags. Ted Kaye brought his usual clip- pings, shared the latest VT Flag Quiz, and displayed several flags, including the Alice Paul suffrage banner and replicas of those possi- bly used by Spanish explorers on the Pacific Coast (made by Elmer’s Flag & Banner for an Oregon Historical Society exhibition 25 years ago). He shared the 1983 masterwork Banderas de España, by José Luis Calvo Pérez and Luis Grávalos González, in which all of the replica flags appear. Our next meeting will be hosted by Patrick Genna on 12 March in the community room at his residence in N.E. Portland. The PFA flag was delivered to him, to display as the next host. Mike Hale shows a very expensively-manufactured classic U.S. flag. February 2020 Portland Flag Association 5 Alfred Znamierowski 1940–2019 By Roman Klimeš been General Consul of the Republic Prague, Czech Republic of Poland in Bratislava and then in Czechoslovakia. With deep pain in our hearts, we announce that on October 23, 2019, I am very proud of that Alfred Zna- at about 1:00 a.m., nowadays the best mierowski was a friend of mine and vexillologist in the world, Alfred that I was able to provide him a lot of Znamierowski, died at the age of 79 illustrations and other materials (e.g. in Prague, the Czech Republic. Apart Law texts from the Collection of from the vexillology, he was one of Laws, actually all countries of the the world leading heraldists and world). Unfortunately, the latest book sphragists. He also worked in the he worked on has not been finished field of politics and culture; he was (Flags, Coats of Arms ,and Seals of also a journalist. Alfred Znamierowski the United States of America and its individual states and territories). In Alfred Znamierowski was born on 21 the early evening just before his death, June 1940 in the then-General Gov- flags. He began to work with Ameri- we were collecting materials for that ernment of Warsaw. His views and can vexillologist Dr. Whitney Smith book from my archive. However thinking were not formed by his com- and contribute articles to various vex- there was so much and we decided to munist father but by his grandfather illological journals. (He had written finish it following day. Unfortunately, Czeslaw Znamierowski, a Polish jurist, for many Polish magazines before). it was not possible because Alfred had sociologist, and professor of philoso- died at the night before. phy at the University of Poznan. I personally corresponded with him since about 1983, and we first met in Alfred Znamierowski had been mar- Alfred Znamierowski studied geogra- 1990 after the fall of the communist ried five times (all his wives were phy at Warsaw University. In 1965 regimes in Central and Eastern Eu- Polish) and he was just preparing for he was given the opportunity to go to rope in summer of 1990 with another the sixth marriage. He had an only Italy and then to France, where in well-known Polish vexillologist An- son, Christian, who lives in the United 1966 he gained the status of political drzej Beblowski. As a representative States in Virginia, not far from Wash- refugee. Next he moved to Munich, of Polish emigration in the USA, Al- ington, D.C. Bavaria, where he started to work as fred Znamierowski had contact with an redactor of Polish section of Radio Alfred was Fellow of the Federation U.S. president Ronald Reagan several of the International Federation of Free Europe.