Tartan colours Modern Ancient Weathered Muted

[OC Richard]

Putting aside "hunting" "dress" etc variants, nowadays when kilt-shopping we can be faced with these four options (sorry that's the closed "muted" I could find)



I'd like to know more about the timings of these.

About Modern Colours (upper left) Wiki tells me that the first aniline dye was "aniline purple" AKA "Perkin's mauve" AKA "mauveine, invented in 1856.

This was followed by "fuchsine" (1856) "induline" (1863, blue, black) and "safranin" (1878).

Were these various dyes introduced into tartans piecemeal as they were invented, or did the larger weavers wholly switch over?

Looking at those dates I'd guess that by the 1870s aniline dyes would have overtaken the old dyes.

Next to appear were Ancient Colours (upper right) or as they are sometimes called in old catalogues "Vegetable Colourings".

I've not been able to pin down a date.

My 1907 Leckie Graham catalogue doesn't mention these in its list of tartans available in kilting fabrics, but does mention them in their list of "tartan Saxony rugs" but only for Gordon.

There are three in their list of "silk tartan Windsor scarves" Gordon, Munro, and Stewart.

Interestingly I can find no mention of "ancient" or "vegetable" colours in The Kilt: A Manual Of Scottish National Dress (Edinburgh, Andrew Elliot, 1914) though it is of interest that the word "vest" is exclusively used for what today in Scotland is called a "waistcoat".

The earliest image I've seen that might show "ancient" colours is an illustration in Forsyth's 1909 catalogue



A 1978 catalogue offers 264 tartans in Ancient Colours and only 186 in "ordinary" colours which testifies to the popularity of the "ancient" scheme.

Happily we know all about the introduction of what we normally call Weathered Colours (lower left) today. That colour-scheme was introduced, with hyperbolic fanfare, by the weaver D C Dalgliesh in the late 1940s. He called the scheme "Reproduction Colours" but at some point (when??) Lochcarron copied the scheme entirely, dubbing it "Weathered Colours" which name has stuck.




Then there are the popular Muted Colours (lower right) which are exclusive to the weaver House Of Edgar. I'd love to know when they created this colour-scheme.

There are other weavers who had/have colours they call "muted" but these are quite different, and in some cases correspond to the "reproduction"/"weathered" scheme.

The elephant in the room are Wilsons of Bannockburn colours, pre-aniline traditional colours. Sadly no-one seems to offer a full range of tartans in Wilsons colours, though the weaver Strathmore offers a few https://www.strathmorewoollen.co.uk/?s=WOB

[figheadair]

Putting aside "hunting" "dress" etc variants, nowadays when kilt-shopping we can be faced with these four options (sorry that's the closed "muted" I could find)

I'd like to know more about the timings of these.

Richard,

Some interesting questions/observations.

About Modern Colours (upper left) Wiki tells me that the first aniline dye was "aniline purple" AKA "Perkin's mauve" AKA "mauveine, invented in 1856.

This was followed by "fuchsine" (1856) "induline" (1863, blue, black) and "safranin" (1878).

Were these various dyes introduced into tartans piecemeal as they were invented, or did the larger weavers wholly switch over?

I don't know but I would have thought that there was a piece-meal change. We know that Perkins Purple took off very quickly and before the other artificial dyes were available so there must have been some mixing
at the beginning.

Looking at those dates I'd guess that by the 1870s aniline dyes would have overtaken the old dyes.

Agreed.

Next to appear were Ancient Colours (upper right) or as they are sometimes called in old catalogues "Vegetable Colourings".

I've not been able to pin down a date.

My 1907 Leckie Graham catalogue doesn't mention these in its list of tartans available in kilting fabrics, but does mention them in their list of "tartan Saxony rugs" but only for Gordon.

Interestingly I can find no mention of "ancient" or "vegetable" colours in The Kilt: A Manual Of Scottish National Dress (Edinburgh, Andrew Elliot, 1914) though it is of interest that the word "vest" is exclusively used for what today in Scotland is called a "waistcoat".

The earliest image I've seen that might show "ancient" colours is an illustration in Forsyth's 1909 catalogue.

The Forsyth's catalogue, or at least my copy, is date 1907, not 1909. It includes several tartans such as Gordon (Ancient) and MacDougal (Ancient) but these are references to older setts and not colouring.

The Black and White photographs of the period, and indeed earlier, are unhelpful because of the way colour tones are reversed meaning that they often look 'ancient' even when we know from specimens that they weren't.

I wonder if the basis of the Old/Ancient colours may have been influence by some of the earlier printed works. Whilst the Vestiarium plates are dark (towards Modern Colours) due to the printing techniques, as least one book of that period had watercolour plates in which the shades were much lighter in comparison with those of the VS. Here's a plate from Coats of Arms, Crests, Clan Tartans &c. by John Whyte, Edinburgh, 1845 which look very like what we now think of as Old/Ancient Colours.

Happily we know all about the introduction of what we normally call Weathered Colours (lower left) today. That colour-scheme was introduced, with hyperbolic fanfare, by the weaver D C Dalgliesh in the late 1940s. He called the scheme "Reproduction Colours" but at some point (when??) Lochcarron copied the scheme entirely, dubbing it "Weathered Colours" which name has stuck.

Lochcarron's Weather Colours were introduced in the 1970s as far as I know.

Then there are the popular Muted Colours (lower right) which are exclusive to the weaver House Of Edgar. I'd love to know when they created this colour-scheme.

At some point in the late 1970s/early 1980s I believe.

The elephant in the room are Wilsons of Bannockburn colours, pre-aniline traditional colours. Sadly no-one seems to offer a full range of tartans in Wilsons colours, though the weaver Strathmore offers a few https://www.strathmorewoollen.co.uk/?s=WOB

This is the glaring omission in the Trade's offers - a range of shades matched to early 19th century natural dyes of which Wilsons' were by far the best, they after all codified the concept of standard colours. And it's not just the colours, Wilsons' settings were often quite different to those we see today. Their designs had a structural harmony to them that's been lost in the desire for standardised sett sizes, something that has been to the detriment of many of the patterns. Returning to the older settings is one of the underlining features of much of my work.