That's a good question, a chicken-or-the-egg thing.
My assumption has always been that DC Dalgliesh created that palette (as I recall introduced in 1949) and that at some point other mills like Lochcarron copied it, dubbing it "weathered".
In the 1980s I worked at a Highland Outfitter, we mainly used Lochcarron, House of Edgar, and Strathmore for our fabric and as best I recall Strathmore also had weathered tartans (or perhaps it was some other mill, I do know we didn't deal with Dalgliesh).
But as you rightly point out this is just conjecture because I don't actually know when those mills introduced "weathered" tartans.
Old catalogues won't help because they don't state who weaves the fabric they use for their kilts.
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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