Raeburn Portrait & the VS "Menzies" Plate

[Domehead]

Hello Rabble,
Perhaps this has already been deduced:

Most are familiar with the Raeburn Portrait of Alistair Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry, c1812. The tartan rendered in the kilt & bodice is presumed the "Glengarry", although some tartanologists feel there is err in Raeburn's reconstruction, despite his attention to detail (see Donald Calder Stewart, The Setts of the Scottish Tartans, 2nd Ed. 1974, p.71)

If D. C. Stewart is to be taken credibly re: the assertion of Raeburn "carelessness", then are the cadagh in the same portrait that which was eventually codified as "Menzies" by the Sobieski Stuarts (Hay Allens) in 1842 (c1829)?

Not all of the VS tartans are spurious. The Raeburn Portrait featured an actual sitter and pre-dates production of the VS by a documented 17 years & a publication date of 30 years. The painting, with it the cadagh, is at least contemporary with the Sobiesky Stuart Bros. research (acknowledging their 16th Century claims to be indisputably false). I'm not suggesting the VS plate displayed a tartan which should be considered, through "wont & use", a Menzies tartan. I am suggesting the Sobieski Stuarts absconded with an existing sett and gave it a name.

Although there exist slight differences between that depicted by Raeburn and that rendered in the VS, if D.C. Stewart is correct, such discrepancies are accounted for by Raeburn's "carelessness":



Alistair Ranaldson MacDonell of Glengarry, c 1812 by Raeburn
www.caniwalkthere.com




The cadagh
www.caniwalkthere.com




The Original Menzies Plate from the VS
Matthew A.C. Newsome
www.newhousehighland.com

My rendered Menzies Plate using the information from Stewart & Thompson's Scotland's Forged Tartans, 1980
www.scotweb.com

What say you?

Thanks for reading and your consideration,
Ryan M. Liddell