Can you identify this tartan?

[apack]

Hi all,

I obtained a little short of 5 yards of this tartan to wear as a féileadh mhor. It is a medium weight fabric (~12 oz) with kilt selvedge, and I am fairly certain that it is wool. However, I got it from ebay (for $30 -- great deal), so I don't know exactly where it was produced, and I also don't recognize the tartan. Does anyone know? It's not a big deal, I'm just curious.

I like it because it is colorful and has a complex pattern. The colors are red, orange, yellow, and brown. The repeat appears to be 6.5 inches in the direction parallel to the selvedge, and 5.75 inches in the perpendicular direction. The image below shows a full repeat. It might be a little difficult to distinguish the red from the orange in this scan -- the block on the bottom-left is all red (with brown stripes), while all other blocks have a mixture of red and orange (with brown stripes). Any info on this tartan would be appreciated!

[M. A. C. Newsome]

That's what is generally called a "bumbee" tartan -- that is, a non-named fashion design.

[Hamish]

Hi Apack,

Well that certainly is a bright one, but I rather doubt it is a true tartan - a fashion 'tartan' possibly. It is certainly not one I have come across before.

There is an on-line tartan search facility which allows you to submit the colour sequence across a sett (there may be more than one, but this is the one I have bookmarked) at http://www.house-of-tartan.scotland....se/reverse.asp . Alas, this does not recognise your recent acquisition either.

Unless anyone else can come up with an answer, I think you will have to accept that it is a fashion item without provenance. Nevertheless, wear it well and enjoy.

Sorry Matt! You squeezed your reply in whilst I was still typing, but at least we are agreed!

[macwilkin]

Apack,

Please post all tartan-related questions in the heraldry & tartans section. Thanks! :mrgreen:

Todd

[KiltedCelt]

Let me preface this by saying that I am not trying to be difficult or flip, but I am intrigued by the statement in above thread that a Tartan may not be "True" so my question is ..What makes a "True Tartan"? Must it be named? Must it be from Scotland? I would be very interested in hearing the various members opinions on this matter....

Respectfully,

Michel A. Smith

[jordanjm]

I believe that a "True" tartan is one which identifies, or represents a clan, family, country, state, business, or some other group. While a Fashion tartan was designed to be pretty. Both stes contain very good tartans, but one has something behind it. I believe it is this added depth, which makes a tartan "True" or not. That said I do not know another word for the "True" tartans to seperate them from the "Fashion" tartans.

[McClef]

In my opinion any tartan that someone has designed for themselves is a true tartan also!

I like that one too!

[apack]

Thanks all for the info. The fact that it's a fashion tartan doesn't bother me given what I paid for it. I had wondered about this already, as I had checked the typical on-line sources for clan and district tartans, but couldn't find it.

Another quick follow-up for Matt and Hamish: so do you recognize all or almost all of the official tartans off-hand? I know there are several thousand registered tartans, though I guess only some hundreds are really traditional ones. In either case, I would be impressed at the level of dedication and familiarity required to know that many on sight! Definitely an interesting subject though.

As always, I'll wear it with pride. I would not wear it any other way in any case.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Another quick follow-up for Matt and Hamish: so do you recognize all or almost all of the official tartans off-hand? I know there are several thousand registered tartans, though I guess only some hundreds are really traditional ones. In either case, I would be impressed at the level of dedication and familiarity required to know that many on sight! Definitely an interesting subject though.

Since I work with tartans on a daily basis and have for over a decade, I can recognize most of the common (and even quite a few uncommon) ones in sight. But that is far from all of them! Most of the thousands of tartans recorded are so rarely encountered that there is no way one could be familiar with them all.

[Monkey@Arms]

Since the use of "fashion," or if you will, "nonaligned" tartans predates clan tartans, I think they are just as real as any other, just unnamed.

Best regards,

Jake