Description: Views: 4909 Added: 04/10/2009 Updated: 04/10/2009 Grommets — Metal or whip-stitched reinforcements through which rope could be tied or threaded when flying a flag. Common thinking among military historians used to be that metal grommets did not exist during the Civil War and were therefore not used on Civil War era flags. This is a common falsehood, however. I have owned many Civil War-period flags with metal grommets, and my former business partner claimed to have seen a flag with 1854 patent date-stamped grommets. There are at least two patents prior to the Civil War. These are # 5,779, issued to E.H. Penfield on Sept. 19, 1848, and # 11,108, issued to J. Allender on June 20, 1854. In fact, Penfield’s 1848 patent is actually an improvement on an existing design, and therefore can not be the earliest date.

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