A U.S. 34-STAR 'PHALANX' CONVERSION FLAG.
A handsewn pieced wool U.S. flag with applied cotton stars in a 6-6-6-6-6 pattern with one star added in each corner for a total of 34, outdoor header with five ¾ inch gromets, 1861-63, significant soiling and wear, including some loss to stripes.
Provenance: Mastai American Flag Collection, sold Sotheby's New York, to the Zaricor Flag Collection, 2002.
Publication: Mastai, Boleslaw and Marie-Louise D'Otrange. The Stars and Stripes: The American Flag as Art and as History from the Birth of the Republic to the Present. Old Saybrook, CT: Konecky & Konecky, 1973,pp 126-27.

Boleslaw and Marie-Louise Mastai were important mid-century collectors of American flag variants. Their book, The Stars and Stripes, illustrates the evolution of the U.S. flag over the centuries, before national standards were established. This example appears in their book with the suggestion that its unusual dimensions (much longer than other standards) indicate that it was for military or naval usage, though this has not been confirmed. What is most unusual, however, is the placement of the stars on the canton: 5 horizontal rows of 6 stars each, what Mastai calls the 'phalanx' pattern, with an additional star added at each corner. The most likely explanation is that this is a conversion flag, originally made with just 30 stars and adapted either over time or all at once with the addition of Kansas to the Union in 1861.