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Jack (Spain)

Torrotito, Bandera de Tajamar o Bauprés

Last modified: 2002-12-20 by santiago dotor
Keywords: jack | banner of arms | castle (yellow) | lion: rampant (red) | stripes: 9 (yellow-red) | chain (yellow) |
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[Jack (Spain)] 1:1
by Michael P. Smuda
Flag adopted 11th October 1945, readopted 21st January 1977

See also:

Description

The Spanish jack is a banner-of-arms of the Spanish escutcheon (quarterly Castile, Leon, Aragon and Navarre), without either Granada on the point nor the Anjou inescutcheon. The Spanish term for jack is torrotito or more properly bandera de tajamar. Source: Calvo and Grávalos 1983.

Santiago Dotor, 28 December 1998

My image of the Spanish jack is based on Pedersen 1971.

Michael P. Smuda, 11 January 1999

First adopted in the Reglamento de Banderas, Insignias y Distintivos (Flags, Rank and Distinguishing Flags Regulation) of 11th October 1945.

Santiago Dotor, 27 February 2001

Please note that the Spanish jack is not simply a square banner-of-arms derived from the current model of arms. It is described in both the 1945 regulations and the 1977 decree, and illustrated at least in the latter. Michael Smuda's image above is an almost perfect rendition of the jack, with some exceptions:

  • the castle should have blue windows and gate;
  • the lion should have yellow claws and tongue (armed and langued Or).
Otherwise the image (based on Pedersen 1971) follows closely the 1977 Decree, whose description of the jack has never been thereafter abolished.

There is an —apparently recent— picture of the jack in actual use in Símbolos de España 1999, p. 360, and it looks very much like the one in the Decree, with the following mistakes which I believe are the manufacturer's artistic license:

  • the castle has yellow windows and gate;
  • the lion has red claws and tongue;
  • the saltirewise bits of the Navarrese chains show five links each (-o-o-) rather than three each (-o-) like all the other bits.
  • there is a thick black fimbriation separating the four quarters.
The jewel in the centre of the Navarrese arms is an emerald — thus green.

The image of the jack in Album des Pavillons 2000 is quite imprecise, since it —mistakenly— uses the same elements (squarish castle, unheraldic lion) and colours as the coat-of-arms.

Santiago Dotor, 4 September 2001