Quote Originally Posted by Tobus View Post
I've no doubt that your eye for detail is better than mine with respect to Highland clothing, but do you think Sandby's paintings can be taken as accurate down to this level of detail? The post-Culloden painting appears to show the two prisoners wearing kilts with no pleats, and the tartan on the bias. Would that have been a type of kilt worn at that time period?
Clearly kilts with no pleats is a contradiction but a feileadh beag with folds would be closer to what Sandby showed.

The tartan on the bias is obviously nonesense and reflects the difficulty a number of 18th century artists had with depicting tartan. The drawings of the Black Watch mutineers are a good example and their yellow and red tartan bears no resemblance to the Government sett. It may have been the case that th colouring was done later in the same way that it was for the later McIan prints.

What seems less understandable is why Sandby would have shown a feileadh beag and a sparate rolled plaid (much like the army campaign blanket worn by non-Highland soldiers) if the individuals had been wearing a feileadh mor. The style of dress he showed was certainly in use at the time of the '45 as for example, the images from Loevestein Castle attest.