Choice of Tartan

[Steve Ashton]

Can you tell us where you read this?

The only reason I know this, is because I read it today. It is considered acceptable to wear Stewart Black, or Stewart Hunting, but only acceptable to wear Stewart Royal, if you have permission from The Queen. It is her personal tartan! In this case, THAT guy, just may happen to be Queen Elizabeth II.

[gealach]

Thanks for the answers. Pretty much what I expected.

@figheadair: When you say Prince Charles Edward, do you mean STA/STWR 1374 (the 'more green Royal Stewart')?

[Dollander]

I always thought of it as "less red" rather than "more green", but either way...I did notice that the Prince Charles Edward Stuart that the mills offer is slightly different from that listed by the Tartans Authority and the Tartan Register, namely that the yellow lines are instead white:




Edit: apologies, but I didn't realize the image from Lochcarron would be so frickin' huge.

[gealach]

I quite like the yellow lines. "Less red" is in fact an interesting way to look at it. Royal Stewart is indeed very red.

Comparing the two, I think about getting a Prince Charles Edward. Does anybody now the thread counts/sett sizes?

[figheadair]

I did notice that the Prince Charles Edward Stuart that the mills offer is slightly different from that listed by the Tartans Authority and the Tartan Register, namely that the yellow lines are instead white:

Then they are wrong and should be avoided. This is possibly the oldest known piece of Prince Charles Edward and it definitely has yellow and white lines.

[Dollander]

Once again, in my haste I didn't word that very well. The actual fabric has the yellow lines, but the Tartan Register version does not. I chose to link that (huge) Lochcarron image because I thought it was the best example, but here also are the offerings of Marton Mills and DC Dalgliesh:


Again with the gigantic image...is there a way to make hotlinked pics appear smaller?

[gealach]

Now I'm glad I asked again. How can it be wrong on the register? I mean yes, there's a remark on tartansauthority that it mit be an error but no such thing on the register. They don't even seem to have the 'real' one registered.

Anyways, I've decided to go with PCE. Thanks again for the suggestion figheadair and for the clarification everyone!

[figheadair]

Firstly, good choice, the PCE version is a much nicer tartan IMO. What you now need to consider is what shades you want/prefer. As an example, here are four specimens of the tartan dating from c1790-1840, all woven by Wilsons of Bannockburn and all visually different.

Wilsons - PCE specimens.jpg

The records at the Scottish Register are a complete mess, the problem is that they don't the expertise to sort them out and no money to pay for the work (quite a serious undertaking) to be done. The Stewart entries are a prime example of the chaos. As an aside, they do include the PCE tartan - see entries 1371 and 1373.

[figheadair]

Again with the gigantic image...is there a way to make hotlinked pics appear smaller?

You need to save them to you desktop and the use a graphic programme to resize them down to something like 1000 pixals wide.

[figheadair]

Thanks for the answers. Pretty much what I expected.

@figheadair: When you say Prince Charles Edward, do you mean STA/STWR 1374 (the 'more green Royal Stewart')?

No, that version is erroneous, you should be looking at #1371.