Original Items. One-of-a-Kind. This is an outstanding Spanish-American War-era capture piece consisting of an uncut sheet of eight Spanish “Knapsack Flags,” or Bandera de Mochila, preserved together and later adapted for use as a large patriotic banner. Sometimes referred to by Spanish collectors as a “patriotic” pattern, this style has been associated with generic knapsack flags, though period photographs more clearly document similar examples being used as patriotic bunting or decorative display material.

The complete sheet measures approximately 52 x 72 inches and has been fitted with stitched white headers along the upper and lower edges. The upper header retains tie strings at the corners, indicating that the sheet was suspended for display. There is very heavy fading across the entire textile, and the yellow central stripe of each individual flag has faded almost completely to white.

The uncut sheet has been made into a banner with stitched white headers on one side at the top and bottom. The top has tie strings at the corners, with very heavy fading across the entire uncut sheet. This example was likely hanging on a building for a long time before an American soldier came by and took it as a souvenir. The yellow stripes in the center of each flag is now heavily faded to white. The only serious damage is a sizable hole along the bottom edge of the sheet with the hole nearly tearing through the header at the end.

These flags if cut apart would be worth roughly $350-400 each, so it is a miracle that this uncut sheet has escaped the fate of being piecemealed out. This outstanding capture piece would make an impressive backdrop to any Spanish-American War Collection. 

The Spanish Bandera de Mochila, also known as a Bandera de Percha, was a distinctive personal textile associated with Spanish military service in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Although commonly described today as a flag, contemporary regulations refer to the item as a pañuelo, or cloth square. A January 12, 1898 issue of the Diario Oficial del Ministerio de la Guerra, listing equipment for troops embarking for Cuba, refers to the item as a pañuelo cubrepercha, or “hanger-covering cloth.”

The tradition is generally traced to Spanish expeditionary forces serving in North Africa beginning in 1860, and variations remained in military use into the early 20th century. Some examples carried unit-specific designations, while others appear to have served broader patriotic or decorative purposes. The exact intended function of this particular uncut pattern remains open to interpretation, though its later use as bunting is clearly demonstrated by the added headers and tie strings.

The survival of eight printed sections still joined together is what makes this textile particularly noteworthy. Individual examples are frequently encountered after having been cut apart, while a complete uncut sheet preserves much more information about the original production format and subsequent reuse.

The combination of its large size, eight-panel uncut construction, stitched display headers, surviving tie strings, extreme period fading, and Spanish-American War association makes this a particularly striking military textile. Its use as patriotic bunting also adds an important dimension to the study of Spanish military and nationalist display practices at the end of the 19th century.