Todd beat me to the punch with my blog posting commention on Sir Malcolm's letter.
While it is very true that the only one who has authority to say what is and is not an actual clan tartan is the clan chief, we must remember that this authority is one of tradition. It is not a legal authority. There is really nothing that Sir Malcolm can do, in a court of law, to prevent people from non-approved tartans by the MacGregor name. All he can do is inform his clan that
these and
only these are recognized MacGregor tartans.
One wearing his tartan for the purposes of clan identity will no doubt be very interested in finding out what their chief has to say on the matter and will want to follow his opinions. Other people will be less interested.
One thing that was mentioned in Malcolm's letter were the number of "MacGregor" dance or dress tartans. These were not sanctioned as official MacGregor tartans. Now, there is a long tradition of Highland dancer's tartans being based on traditional clan tartans, but based in white (or cream) and rendered in much brighter colors (like teal, purple, gold, etc). Now, if you have a tartan that is based in the MacGregor pattern, just rendered in colors more appropriate to Highland Dancing, what else are you going to call it other than "MacGregor"?
(As a side note, I beleive that Sir Malcolm later amended his statement to include the dance versions of the MacGregor tartan as official clan tartans, but only to be worn by MacGregor dancers).
I have a friend who is a MacGregor (who also works at the museum), who simply doesn't like red tartans. He much prefers darker tartans, especially black. So he and I worked together to make a black tartan for him. Since he's a MacGregor, we based it in the MacGregor design, but reversed the red and black. We called the result the "Black MacGregor" tartan. He's standing to the right in the below photo:
Now, this is not a clan tartan, nor does it pretend to be. We had it recorded with the Scottish Tartans Authority as a "personal" tartan. That's what it is. However, were we wrong in using the MacGregor name? The pattern of the tartan is the MacGregor pattern. As a personal tartan, we could name it after the person it was designed for... whose surname is MacGregor! There is no mistaking it. This is "a" MacGregor tartan, even though it is not a MacGregor
clan tartan.
It can be confusing, admittedly. Which is why research is always important.
This is also one of the reasons why the forthcoming National Register of Tartans will be important. One of the things that this Register will supposedly do is earmark in some way which tartans are officially recognized by those with the authority to do so, and which ones are not. This will not keep personal tartans, or dancers tartans, or fashion tartans from being recorded, mind you. But it will separate them from tartans that have the official sanction of the clan chief (or another appropriate authority). The details of the National Register are still being worked out, but whatever the end result is, the hope of many is that this National Register will have the backing of the Scottish government behind it, so that if there are cases of copyright infringment or false claims being made, there will be a legal authority to rectify the situation.
Aye,
Matt
Originally Posted by dpseadvr
Bookmarks