The Forster Flag, the first US flag to feature 13 stripes, is to star in a single lot auction at Doyle New York on April 9 with an estimate of $1m-3m.
Prepared in Massachusetts circa 1774, as tensions between the British and the colonialists reached melting point, it is the first flag created to represent the nation and the earliest known example to use 13 red and white stripes to symbolise the colonies.
 The Forster Flag is the earliest known American flag to feature 13 stripes to represent the rebel colonies |
On April 19, 1775 it was carried in the alarm for the battles of Lexington and Concord by the Essex County Militia, whose lieutenant, Samuel Forster, it is named after.
The flag was created through the modification of the canton (the upper left quarter), which had initially displayed a Union Jack and was replaced with this early example of the stripes motif.
Around 30 flags dating to the American revolution have survived to the present day, with this example one of the few remaining on the open market.
It is regarded as among the most important of that era, and despite its advanced age, is in an exceptional state of preservation.
Flags dating to the days of the revolution have made significant sums at auction previously.
A battle flag made for the Continental Army's Eighth Virginia Regiment sold for $422,500 at Freeman's in Philadelphia in 2012, while another 13 stripe example captured by the British at Pound Ridge, New York in 1779 made $12.3m at Sotheby's New York.
We have this 1848 Peter Force printing of the Declaration of Independence available to purchase.
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