The Scottish Tartans: 1920, 1945, 1961

[OC Richard]

A while back a woman at work, who is a huge Used Book Shop person, brought me this little book.

"I found it in a shop the other day. I thought you might be interested. Here, it only cost a couple dollars."



It had a red hard cover directly printed in black ink.

"Published by Renton's Ltd Princes St Edinburgh"

What was Rentons? Well inside I found out all about them.



"Our establishment contains complete suites of retiring rooms for Ladies and Gentlemen, which we invite you to use for rest or appointment, also a well appointed restaurant and comfortable smoke-room."

Sadly this fine establishment was no longer around in the 1980s, at least I don't recall seeing it.

When I looked through the book it was fascinatingly new yet familiar.

Here was a strip of tartan and a gent in Highland Dress. The dress shown in most of the photographs is like this, a doublet with full lace (braid) trim. These had a short but big popularity around 1900, which helps date the illustrations.



Often these gents have ornate accessories which as we know were passe by 1930.



There were a few images showing tweed and spats, once again looking like the immediate post-Victorian era.



This outfit sort of in between Day and Evening



But who is the W. & A. K. Johnston accredited in the illustrations? I soon discovered that Renton's wasn't the publisher, it was Johnston, in Edinburgh. They left a blank space in the lower right of the cover to imprint the retailer's name.



The seller might be anyone, even the Philadelphia Blanket Company!



As is typical with old books there was no publishing date. However in each of the Clan entries they were at pains to state the current Chief, if there was one.

Two entries form a good time bracket. There is mention of Sir Iain Colquhoun DSO, and I found he received that award in 1916.

One Chief is stated to be Sir Donal James MacKay, who died in 1921.

So we are left with a publishing date of around the end of The Great War.