Good evening, Ladies & Bruces

[TheBrus]

Tartan historians: I was wondering if anyone could give me background on the Old Clan Bruce tartan. You don't see it much, except in pictures, but can anyone give me a history on it, and maybe why it fell by the wayside?

Also, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about New Bruce tartan... it's also known as a Grant (and Drummond?) tartan. How did the Bruce name get affixed to it?

Thanks!
The Bruce

[figheadair]

Tartan historians: I was wondering if anyone could give me background on the Old Clan Bruce tartan. You don't see it much, except in pictures, but can anyone give me a history on it, and maybe why it fell by the wayside?

Also, I was wondering if anyone knew anything about New Bruce tartan... it's also known as a Grant (and Drummond?) tartan. How did the Bruce name get affixed to it?

Thanks!
The Bruce

Firstly, it's unlikely that either sett was originally designed as a clan tartan.

The two versions, Old and New, are unrelated and whilst they are given in Wilsons' 1819 Key Pattern Book Wilson's note stated that they had no idea why it/their records named the New Bruce as such and noted that it had been ordered that year by Patrick Grant of Redcastle as his own tartan. That in itself does not necessarily mean that the Grants historically wore it but rather he was getting on the tartan bandwagon and choice one he like to be his clan sett. The Drummonds wore this sett at the 1822 Levee so presumably adopted it sometime between 1819-22 as it is not given under their name in the 1819 KPB.

The Old Bruce is a more interesting sett. Wilsons' records give details for their 19" Old Superfine cloth which indicates that it was one of their early (c1770-90) fancy setts and as such was probably named Bruce after Robert the Bruce in order to appeal to public opinion and so boost it's sales appeal. The setting included a selvedge pattern meaning that in common with other settings of the period that the cloth was designed to be joined to give a 38" width cloth in which the pattern repeats across. A recently discovered Wilsons' Sample Book c1830-40 includes a variation of the Old Bruce that includes additional light blue stripes. This sample is named Bruce showing that the Old Bruce continued to be used, albeit improved, until the mid 1800s.

The Old Bruce seems to have been dropped in favour of the current sett which was given in the 1842 Vestiarum Scoticum.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Here's that version of the "Old" Bruce from the 1830-40 pattern book Peter mentioned.


From here:
http://resources.scottishtartans.org...e_gallery.html

[TheBrus]

That's exactly why I joined XMarks. Thank you for all of the information!