Delfim Guimarães’ and Roque Gameiro’s proposals for the new portuguese national flag (1910-1911)

Last modified: 2003-03-01 by antonio martins
Keywords: armilliary sphere | coat of arms: escutcheons | guimarães (delfim) | gameiro (roque) | armillary sphere (blue) | coat of arms | escutcheons |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

• Assumed project
• Anonymous project

• Portugal
• Proposals for the new portuguese national flag (1910-1911)

The project by Delfim Guimarães and Roque Gameiro was a flag in spanish pattern of red-white-green with a blue armilla in the centre of the white strip and an unusually shaped portuguese shield over the armilla.
Jorge Candeias, 26 Aug 1997

It is an anonymous project. But, given it's similarities with another project, by Delfim Guimarães and Roque Gameiro, it’s possible that it was proposed by them also, or by one of them. The original drawing shows a quite long flag (which I remade in 1:2) horizontally divided in three colours: red, white and green. The white stripe is about 3-4 times as wide as the other two stripes and contains an emblem, shifted to the hoist, composed of a blue armilliary sphere and a portuguese shield.

Comparing this project with that of Delfim Guimarães and Roque Gameiro, the most striking differences are the position of the emblem and the style in the armilliary sphere, pretty stylized in Gameiro and Guimaraes' project. Vexillographically, this is one of the best projects of all but has a major drawback that undoubtedly influenced negatively it's chances of adoption: it follows the same generic pattern of the spanish flag. No do.

The original image had this caption:

PORTUGUESE FLAG (PROJECT)

Together with the traditional white, the red and green of the new institutions: a flag where the great history of a people can be read...