Weathered Tartans

[Pleater]

I watched the recent series of 'Good Omens' on TV - the Neil Gaiman Terry Pratchett collaboration, and noticed that there was a very weathered indeed tartan used for the kilts of angels being kitted out to fight the last battle.

I have the cd now and keep meaning to freeze the scene and see if it is possible to make out which tartan - if it is an actual tartan, it is.
Good excuse to watch it again...

Anne the Pleater

[figheadair]

I watched the recent series of 'Good Omens' on TV - the Neil Gaiman Terry Pratchett collaboration, and noticed that there was a very weathered indeed tartan used for the kilts of angels being kitted out to fight the last battle.

I have the cd now and keep meaning to freeze the scene and see if it is possible to make out which tartan - if it is an actual tartan, it is.
Good excuse to watch it again...

Anne the Pleater

Do post a screen grab if you can.

[kilted Mnementh]

My personal taste lies with the Macdonald of Clanranald ancient, simply as it's more pleasing to my eye. Then again, i'm not one for over flashy and bright colouring in clothing

[OC Richard]

To muddy the waters even more, House Of Edgar has their "muted" range, neither dark like "modern colours" nor pastel like "ancient colours" nor earth-toned like weathered/reproduction colours.

Here's MacDonald in House Of Edgar's Muted Range



Compare the colours to Black Watch in Ancient Colours



and Black Watch in Weathered/Reproduction colours

[OC Richard]

Sorry to dredge up this thread, but I was going through old catalogues and such and I found a pamphlet by D C Dalgliesh LTD titled The Story Of Reproduction Tartans.

It gives more details about the story seen on their website about how their Reproduction Colour scheme came about:

The story of Reproduction Tartans is the tale of two fragments, the first a piece of cloth no larger than a table napkin, the other a vital nine months in the history of Scotland.

It began in the autumn of 1946 when a peat-gatherer seeking fuel on Culloden Moor dug out an old piece of cloth, which after the most searching examination proved to be a MacDonald tartan. The colours and sett were noted to be somewhat different to that in vogue but this was hardly surprising when it was decided that this piece of cloth was certainly 200 years old. It may have well been worn by a MacDonald then fighting in defence of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, in his quest for the throne of Great Britain.

(Then follows four paragraphs telling the story of the 1745 rebellion.)

Judge then the importance of the peat-gatherer's find and with what care it was cherished. Here indeed was the key to much lost and sketchy knowledge and to D C Dalgliesh, who obtained this piece of cloth on loan, among conditions laid down were two, namely that it be insured for 2,000 pounds and that it be lodged nightly locked in a safe.

Patient and intensive research into colours, sett, and weave followed, and as a result D C Dalgliesh LTD have produced a range of Reproduction Tartans which are authentic in colour and design to those worn in 1745 and before.

Woven in pure wool, the colourings of these tartans offer a soft muted effect entirely reminiscent of the days when vegetable sources such as lichen, moss, and alder bark provided the dyer with his raw materials.

[GlenaladalePiper]

I wonder which MacDonald tartan it was. I descend from the Glenaladale MacDonald’s who are a cadet of Clanranald. It’s believed that Alexander MacDonald 6th Laird of Glenaladale wore the tartan while he fought with Prince Charlie. A fragment of this tartan came to Prince Edward Island in 1772. Long story short, a cousin of mine talked with Peter MacDonald and he reveawed the tartan. You can see some of the tartan on my profile. It’s a beautiful red and an asymmetrical tartan. Not sure if this might have been part of the tartan the farmer found or not.

[FossilHunter]

I wonder which MacDonald tartan it was. I descend from the Glenaladale MacDonald’s who are a cadet of Clanranald. It’s believed that Alexander MacDonald 6th Laird of Glenaladale wore the tartan while he fought with Prince Charlie. A fragment of this tartan came to Prince Edward Island in 1772. Long story short, a cousin of mine talked with Peter MacDonald and he reveawed the tartan. You can see some of the tartan on my profile. It’s a beautiful red and an asymmetrical tartan. Not sure if this might have been part of the tartan the farmer found or not.

It really is a beautiful tartan.

[figheadair]

I wonder which MacDonald tartan it was. I descend from the Glenaladale MacDonald’s who are a cadet of Clanranald. It’s believed that Alexander MacDonald 6th Laird of Glenaladale wore the tartan while he fought with Prince Charlie. A fragment of this tartan came to Prince Edward Island in 1772. Long story short, a cousin of mine talked with Peter MacDonald and he reveawed the tartan. You can see some of the tartan on my profile. It’s a beautiful red and an asymmetrical tartan. Not sure if this might have been part of the tartan the farmer found or not.

The Glenaladale was certainly not the alleged piece from Culloden as it hadn't been rediscovered by 1946.

When the Glenaladale tartan was first reproduced, in the 1970s, it was an asymmetric pattern based on the fragment but that is now shown to be an incorrect interpretation, the pattern is symmetrical - MacDonald of Glenaladale

[figheadair]

Sorry to dredge up this thread, but I was going through old catalogues and such and I found a pamphlet by D C Dalgliesh LTD titled The Story Of Reproduction Tartans.

It gives more details about the story seen on their website about how their Reproduction Colour scheme came about:

The story of Reproduction Tartans is the tale of two fragments, the first a piece of cloth no larger than a table napkin, the other a vital nine months in the history of Scotland.

It began in the autumn of 1946 when a peat-gatherer seeking fuel on Culloden Moor dug out an old piece of cloth, which after the most searching examination proved to be a MacDonald tartan. The colours and sett were noted to be somewhat different to that in vogue but this was hardly surprising when it was decided that this piece of cloth was certainly 200 years old. It may have well been worn by a MacDonald then fighting in defence of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, in his quest for the throne of Great Britain.

(Then follows four paragraphs telling the story of the 1745 rebellion.)

Judge then the importance of the peat-gatherer's find and with what care it was cherished. Here indeed was the key to much lost and sketchy knowledge and to D C Dalgliesh, who obtained this piece of cloth on loan, among conditions laid down were two, namely that it be insured for 2,000 pounds and that it be lodged nightly locked in a safe.

Patient and intensive research into colours, sett, and weave followed, and as a result D C Dalgliesh LTD have produced a range of Reproduction Tartans which are authentic in colour and design to those worn in 1745 and before.

Woven in pure wool, the colourings of these tartans offer a soft muted effect entirely reminiscent of the days when vegetable sources such as lichen, moss, and alder bark provided the dyer with his raw materials.

I'd be happy to be proved wrong but this is just more marketing nonsense in my opinion. Where is this piece, what made it a MacDonald tartan, who decided that the piece of cloth was certainly 200 years old? No museum or academic of the time examined this tartan so the whole claim needs to be regarded with extreme caution.

[Jock Scot]

I'd be happy to be proved wrong but this is just more marketing nonsense in my opinion. Where is this piece, what made it a MacDonald tartan, who decided that the piece of cloth was certainly 200 years old? No museum or academic of the time examined this tartan so the whole claim needs to be regarded with extreme caution.

Rightly or wrongly, I think most of us in Scotland who have a modest interest in tartans think along these lines.