"Great Northern War Flag staff colors?" Topic

The title says it all: Do the various combatants of the GNW have specific staff colors? A quick google search turns up nothing and looking at various painted figures online shows inconsistent colors.

Most extant examples of Swedish flag staffs in the Armemuseum's Digital Museum appear to be natural wood. Some standard lances appear to be painted in the color of the field, but others appear to be natural wood.

Most Saxon flag staffs appear to be natural wood. I've seen some illustrations of Saxon standards where the lance is painted blue regardless of the color of the field.

Russian flags captured at Narva appear to have natural wood staffs, but the "sleeve" attaching the flag to the staff is usually red. Dragoon standard staffs appear to be natural wood, as well.

Thanks.

So plain old "wood color" works again!

I'll probably go the route of painting my Saxons' staffs blue, just to add a little more color to that sea of red.

It is, of course, not always possible to guarantee that the staff a flag is currently displayed on in a museum was actually the one carried into action. Even a number of pikes seem to have had the staff replaced. Sadly, age does not just attack cloth and human beings, but wood also!

Here is a good collection of photos of actual Swedish flags as well as the original drawings for the designs of the model 1686 flags, which show the staffs.

link

Fantastic source, thanks for sharing!

Mollinary