Weathered Tartans

[OC Richard]

Sorry to dredge up this thread, but I was going through old catalogues and such and I found a pamphlet by D C Dalgliesh LTD titled The Story Of Reproduction Tartans.

It gives more details about the story seen on their website about how their Reproduction Colour scheme came about:

The story of Reproduction Tartans is the tale of two fragments, the first a piece of cloth no larger than a table napkin, the other a vital nine months in the history of Scotland.

It began in the autumn of 1946 when a peat-gatherer seeking fuel on Culloden Moor dug out an old piece of cloth, which after the most searching examination proved to be a MacDonald tartan. The colours and sett were noted to be somewhat different to that in vogue but this was hardly surprising when it was decided that this piece of cloth was certainly 200 years old. It may have well been worn by a MacDonald then fighting in defence of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, in his quest for the throne of Great Britain.

(Then follows four paragraphs telling the story of the 1745 rebellion.)

Judge then the importance of the peat-gatherer's find and with what care it was cherished. Here indeed was the key to much lost and sketchy knowledge and to D C Dalgliesh, who obtained this piece of cloth on loan, among conditions laid down were two, namely that it be insured for 2,000 pounds and that it be lodged nightly locked in a safe.

Patient and intensive research into colours, sett, and weave followed, and as a result D C Dalgliesh LTD have produced a range of Reproduction Tartans which are authentic in colour and design to those worn in 1745 and before.

Woven in pure wool, the colourings of these tartans offer a soft muted effect entirely reminiscent of the days when vegetable sources such as lichen, moss, and alder bark provided the dyer with his raw materials.