An Imperial Chinese junk flag captured during the First China War 1839-42. It is part of a collection belonging to Sir Robert Oliver (1783-1848), Superintendent of the Indian Navy.

The hand sewn flag is made of silk with a cotton hoist. It is a triangular shape coloured green with a blue hoist and red indented border. There is a silver and gold four toed dragon and pearl motif in the centre surrounded by clouds. Lightning flashes are shown in the borders.

The flag was used by the Commander-general of Guards Brigade of the Eight Banners. Banner (qi) was the basic social-political-military organization of the Manchu people and the core of hereditary soldiers in the imperial Qing military organization. The Manchus originally organized themselves into four Banners named after the colours of their flags — yellow, white, red, and blue. These Plain (zheng) Banners were early doubled by the addition of four bordered (xiang) counterparts, namely, ‘Bordered Yellow’, ‘Bordered White’, ‘Bordered Red’, and ‘Bordered Blue’.

According to Da Qing Huidian Tu ('Illustrated Collected Statutes of the Great Qing'), it seems that there is no particular rule regarding the colour of the flag. Yet it is stated clearly in the Statues that the design of the flag (cloud and dragon in this case) should be gold-painted. The borders with lightning flashes are either red or white in colour. A red border is applied on the flag used by the guards brigade of 'Xiang huang' ('Bordered Yellow'), 'Xiang bai' ('Bordered White'), and 'Xiang lan' ('Bordered Blue') Banners.

Sir Robert Oliver became Superintendant of the Indian Navy in 1837, a post he would hold until his death on 5 August 1848. The Indian Navy was the naval arm of the Honourable East India Company. It provided steamers that played a crucial role in naval operations during the First China War as were able to penetrate the interior of the country along its rivers.