Closing Banquet, ICV 27 at the Royal Horseguards Hotel, London By Maddish - 18:57, 14 Aug, 2017

Closing Banquet, ICV 27 at the Royal Horseguards Hotel, London

By Maddish - 18:57, 14 Aug, 2017

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The banquet took place in the "Gladstone Library" room, not the real Gladstone Library.  Nonetheless the elegance of the hotel would make the American Country Club look like your average American corner, street bar.  Suffice it to say the it was like jumping in the Mary Poppins Fantasy Fairy-Tale.  We were half expecting the Queen to make an appearance.   

 It was a particularly peacefully, poetic, pleasant, placid, display of pomp.  The feel of a classy crowd of carousing camaraderie was in the air. Suffice it to say to food was good eatin'.  

Ferry service on the Thames is an ancient line of work.  Today, there is an armada of ferries that go back and forth.  They often have guided tours on the outbound trips, towards to sea.  The ferry service flags have a logo similar to the London Underground or subway service.  But for the ferry is has cyan circle on a field of gray with the central horizontal bar with the word 'RIVER' written across.

You can see the famous Cutty Sark in the background, which also has a fine spirit for its namesake.  Additionally you can see a tiny Union Flag on top of the little orange and yellow striped play-light house.

ICV 27 - Help Desk and other Displays

The ICV UK Flag Institute Staff was a wonderful help.  Organizing such events takes months, time, and hours of dedication.  Everyone was delighted that the red-shirts did such a fantastic job!

Sekhar Chakrabarti sitting at a table, selling patches of India flag and the book he wrote about the flag of India through the postage stamps.  











 

 

At the other side tables are vexillologist showing off their work for fun and sales.  Here is Whitney's virtual twin by a few days Alfred Znamierowski.  He is sitting by the flag book that he had written, which gets re-published every few years.


















Ronald C. Strachan is standing next to a flag of the Principality of the Hutt River which is in Western Australia.   This 'protest' state was declared April 21, 1970.  This state have no international recognition, yet it is in the same caliber somewhat of the Conch Republic in the Florida Keys. 

Ron Strachan is one of Australia's leading producers of flags for the nation.  You can order flags at:

 www.nationalflags.com.au

ICV 27 - Speaker 42: Theun Okkerse

  The 42nd speaker was Theun Okkerse with the paper entitled The obverse/reverse paradox: reading flags differs from reading text.

Okkerse gave a brilliant paper about a new way to view and describe directionality on flags.  Why do we think the "obverse" is attached to the pole on the left?  How does this differ across cultures?  Such issues were dis cussed with delight.

(additional contribution from Ted Kaye)

ICV 27 - Speaker 41: Aleksandr Hribovsek

Hribovsek's paper was entitled The New Association Flag and the Flags of the Officers (Herald Society of Slovenia).


Hribovsek and his colleagues described the new flags of the SlovenIan society and it's offices, in the wake of their selection as hosts for the IVC of 2021.

ICV 27 - Speaker 40: Rob Raeside

Raeside's paper was entitled Sub-National Flags of Canada.



Raeside gave a super talk on the provincial/territorial flags of Canada.  Great detail on their evolution in and around the Maple Leaf Flag was demonstrated.


(additional contribution from Ted Kaye)

ICV 27 - Speaker 39: Attila Istvan Szekeres

His paper was entitled The Evolution of the Szekeler Flag in the Last Four Centuries.

Szekeres gave a history of the flags of Szekeler Land, an ethnic-Hungarian enclave in Romania.



(additional contribution from Ted Kaye)

ICV 27 - Speaker 38: Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg

Muijzenberg's paper was entitled Five Rings to Bring them All: a Presentation of the Olympic Flag.


Peter presented his detective work about the Olympic presentation flag and it's use over time.  He also noted that it has disappeared.


(additional contribution from Ted Kaye)