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Brazil: Provincial and Early State Flags

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Last week I went to the Brazilian Historical Musuem, searching for Brazilian imperial flags. Some months ago I read in Clóvis Ribeiro that the provinces of the Brazilian Empire before 1889 had their own flags. However, Ribeiro said these flags were not used within the provinces, but just to signify the origin of the ships coming to Rio's port by being flown at the top of the Castle Hill in downtown Rio de Janeiro. But I found a document of the government of Rio Grande do Sul from the 1930s justifying the reintroduction of the state flag on the grounds that even the [imperial] provinces had their own flags, used in the provinces as regional symbols, and pointing to the Carlos Piquet Collection as proof.

Well this collection of flags is in the Brazilian Historical Museum, and there I found...yes, catalogued...Bandeiras Provinciais do Império [Provincial Flags of the Empire]. The curator, Ms. Ana Maria, said that almost all the flags had been destroyed by time, including the flags of the provinces. She said to me that the flags were very simple ones (she was describing them just by memory), so I had the feeling that the pennants shown at the flags of the world pages of the Brazilian states were indeed, in other proportions, the symbols of the Brazilian provinces [under the empire]. let's we see. 1.Some flags are used like flags of the state 'till an official flag be introduced. example Espirito Santo, Ceará 2.Some flags are very similar to the flag of today , example Rio de Janeiro, Alagoas (the ancient flag without coat of arms), Rio Grande do norte (blue to green) 3.The hypotesis of simple signlizing use is very remote 4. tHE Cisplatine Pprovince had its own flag like is showed in the FOTW, and I didn'nt find any law of the Empire that forbiddes the provinces to have its own flag 5.ms Ana Naria reconized the Ceará old flag like a flag of the Cralos Piquet Colletion