The flag most often sold as the "Tartarian griffin" is a modern cleanup of something older and stranger. The period sources describe it plainly: in Carel Allard's record of 1705, the standard of the king of Tartary is a black dragon — a great serpent with a basilisk tail, couchant, facing the fly, on a field of gold.
This is that flag, rendered faithfully from the description and the surviving 18th-century flag charts. The coiled serpentine tail. The raised wings. The creature lying in wait rather than standing in heraldic pose. It is the emperor's standard as the old records actually set it down — not the version the present age tidied into a griffin.
Printed on durable flag fabric, vivid and sharp. Built to hang as what it is: a recovered standard.
Details
• 100% polyester • Knitted fabric • Fabric weight: 4.42 oz/yd² (150 g/m²) • Print on one side • Blank reverse side • 2 brass grommets for hanging • Drawn from Allard's 1705 description and period flag records
Part of the Etherfolk Tartaria Collection.
The serpent came first. The griffin came later.
Before the griffin, there was the dragon.
The flag most often sold as the "Tartarian griffin" is a modern cleanup of something older and stranger. The period sources describe it plainly: in Carel Allard's record of 1705, the standard of the king of Tartary is a black dragon — a great serpent with a basilisk tail, couchant, facing the fly, on a field of gold.
This is that flag, rendered faithfully from the description and the surviving 18th-century flag charts. The coiled serpentine tail. The raised wings. The creature lying in wait rather than standing in heraldic pose. It is the emperor's standard as the old records actually set it down — not the version the present age tidied into a griffin.
Printed on durable flag fabric, vivid and sharp. Built to hang as what it is: a recovered standard.
Details
• 100% polyester • Knitted fabric • Fabric weight: 4.42 oz/yd² (150 g/m²) • Print on one side • Blank reverse side • 2 brass grommets for hanging • Drawn from Allard's 1705 description and period flag records
