A friend of mine inherited this ladies kilt/tartan skirt from her great grandmother. It had a very nice grouse talon kilt pin with a sterling silver mount, embossed with a thistle and bejewelled with topaz.

I only mention the kilt pin to point to the fact that it was regarded as a family heirloom of significance to their Scottish culture.

The family names associated with that side of her family didn't turn up anything in my search:

MacInnis, Hunter, Young.

Does anyone have any idea?

Attachment 12176

A picture might help ...

I did some searches in the register, but I couldn't find one that was a perfect match. I found some that are sort of close to it, but most of those were listed as being "fashion" or "corporate" designs.

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Originally Posted by Chas

A picture might help ...

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Oh, Thank goodness - I thought I was going blind.

I'll bet this is a fashion tartan.

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Originally Posted by xman

I'll bet this is a fashion tartan.

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It's always possible, but given the vintage and how it was treated as a precious family heirloom, I think it's worth digging a little more to make sure.

It's most likely a fashion tartan. The warp and weft are different. Large black horizontal stripes are lighter grey in the vertical.

Definitely a fashion tartan.

David, the warp and weft are not different. Look carefully at the tan/yellow pivot and you'll see the same effect albeit not so apparent at first glance. This effect is caused by the material being woven slightly warp faced i.e. the warp is denser than the weft and is whilst not a standard technique is not uncommon especially on cheaper cloth as it creates the effect but save material and therefore cost. One can also find it as a technique in some older samples (which this is not) as it makes the cloth coarser.

I cannot help with the tartan, but your comment about the grouse claw pin has had me thinking. "---------an heirloom"? Well of course it is, but "----of significance to their Scottish culture"? Well again, of course it may well be to the person who bought it, to the person who wore it and to their successors, but in general terms, I am not at all sure that a pin such as you describe could be described in general Scottish terms as a significant part of Scottish culture. In fact many of these grouse claw artifacts were worn as brooches. My mother had several as did many ladies of that era and indeed some men wore ---some may still do so---- them as kilt pins, but whilst you can still see them for sale on occasion, they are not the fashion item that they once were. But a cultural item of significance? Hummmm, I am not so sure.

Like Jock I can only ever recall ladies wearing grouse claws as described as a brooch. I am not sure that I ever saw one worn as a kilt pin and have my doubts that something so typically feminine would have been. Perhaps attitudes are different elsewhere.