![M958-440 : M160-33 [tobacco - UK] B. Muratti Sons & Co. Ltd. "Flags" untitled paper back silks - Series C (or C.1) (1914) No.35](/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/2022-06/08%2048%20stars%20%281%29.jpg?itok=VeFPfvKz)
Our card is a paper backed silk, and it shows a 48 star flag, and that was first flown in 1912. It was a leap by two stars and two States, these being New Mexico and Arizona.
This flag flew for a very long time, through both World Wars and over more Presidents than any flag before, but sadly someone with no heart did not think of the romance of significance, and admitted Alaska when this flag was only forty-seven years old rather than let it be a forty-eight star flag for forty-eight years.
The forty-nine star flag flew for just one year by the way – it was replaced in 1959 on the joining of Hawaii.
B. Muratti had addresses in London and Manchester, but they did not start there; the company was founded in Constantinople in 1821. And there was no B, Muratti either, only Basil Mouratoglou. Muratti arrived later, in time for the Manchester factory to be opened under the aegis of Demosthenes Basil Muratti, one of the sons of the founder.
You can read more about this at the Paul Anthony Blogspot