Tuesday 1 September 2020

Portuguese Infantry Flags of the 18th century including Seven Years War

I recently had a small commission for a sheet of flags of Portuguese infantry of the Seven Years War and thereabouts; I say "thereabouts" as we have little information about the flags used in the SYW itself. Along with my interpretation of what little we know or think we know about the SYW flags I therefore also depicted flags from the earlier 18th century as probably carried in the War of the Spanish Succession; it seems likely they were also carried much later but we cannot be sure.

Greg of the Delta Coy blog; https://deltacoy.blogspot.com/2020/08/painting-table-review.html commissioned the flags for a brigade of Portuguese infantry which he is raising (see more on his blog about this project) and is happy to see them used by others, so if there is interest I shall post some of them in the same format as my other historical flags. So, over to you!

This is the full sheet (shown here very much reduced);


16 comments:

  1. Nice to see something unusual, great work

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  2. Lovely work! If ever I manage to get all of my Austrian and Prussian figures painted, some Portugese might provide a very nice little sideline. Equally interesting and colorful uniforms to match these flags.

    Best Regards,

    Stokes

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  3. David,

    The Portuguese flags are brilliant. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them before, and they will be very helpful, especially with the release of Helion’s book on the Portuguese Army. Thank you.

    EB47

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  4. Nice work! I saw these on Greg’s blog earlier. Portuguese for the SYW? I knew nothing about their participation before now.

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  5. excellent David, interesting project, I do not know anything much about the Portuguese during the period.

    cheers
    Matt

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  6. I can see, that These flags are difficult as sources are rare. On the other Hand they are really more interesting and exotic then to see again and again Prussian and French flags.

    Great work!

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  7. Thanks for commenting, Fire at Will. Glad you like them!

    Cheers,

    David.

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  8. Thanks, Stokes. Yes, they are definitely out of the ordinary. The 1759 Tavora execution painting shows two separate batches of Portuguese troops in white and dark blue uniforms carrying those last two flags on the sheet. It's a pity, though, that our knowledge of the Portuguese army in the SYW period is so sketchy; that's why I had to include flags from around the WSS too. Still, some variant of that windmill style does seem to have been used right through to the Peninsular War.

    I hope you do find time and energy to paint up some Portuguese troops at some point. If you use my flags (I shall post some of them up soon) please do post pictures!

    All the best,

    David.

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  9. Thanks, Ray. Yum indeed! ;-)

    All the best,

    David.

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  10. Thanks, EB47. :-) I'll post some of them up on the blog soon. I really look forward to seeing some of them in use on the wargames table!

    Cheers,

    David.

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  11. Thanks, Jonathan. It does seem that it was only right at the end and only in a minor sort of way that the Portuguese were involved - but even so it is good to have something rather exotic like these flags to use! ;-)

    All the best,

    David.

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  12. Thanks, Matt. I confess I hadn't really given much thought to the Portuguese in the SYW until I had this flag commission. It's enough to make anyone start to crave the exotic and out of the ordinary! But I'll still go back to work on the French and Prussians. I shall probably post the up to date versions of the Blau und Rot Wurzburg flags soon too - and I may even post some Russian Guards' flags, based very closely on a surviving example from St Petersburg... We shall see if time and energy allow!

    All the best,

    David.

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  13. Thanks, André. But of course Prussian and French flags probably have more use for more people! I'd be willing to wager we will not see many Portuguese troops appearing on the wargames table any time soon, even when these flags are available... ;-) (I may be wrong and it would be good if I am!)

    All the best,

    David.

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  14. Thanks, Kendo. Sorry to be slow approving your post. I've not been well for a while and so haven't been logging into the blog either. I'm trying to get back into the saddle at the moment! Hope all's well with you.

    Cheers,

    David.

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Saturday 6th June 2020 I've decided to allow comments from Anonymous Users but I'll still be moderating posts, as I'm sure the spam will probably flood in now! We'll see...