Choice of Tartan

**figheadair** · 29th December 17, 11:15 PM

Originally Posted by Kiltem in NM

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.

Hmmm. Considered acceptable by whom? Matt's article nicely covers the situation and correctly points out that it was widely used outside the Royal Family. The idea of restricting the tartan was HM The Queen's father, King George VI but he realised that it was imposible to do this retrospectively and that the gene was gene was well and truly out of the bottle. It was at that point that the Balmoral became restricted by dictate rather than just convention.

So if one wants to wear the Royal Stewart there is no reason not to although personally I find the Prince Charles Edward version far more pleasing.

**Steve Ashton** · 30th December 17, 12:26 AM

Can you tell us where you read this?

Originally Posted by Kiltem in NM

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** · 30th December 17, 12:39 AM

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** · 30th December 17, 08:36 AM

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** · 30th December 17, 03:24 PM

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** · 30th December 17, 04:15 PM

Originally Posted by 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')?

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

**figheadair** · 30th December 17, 04:21 PM

Originally Posted by Dollander

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** · 30th December 17, 05:39 PM

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** · 31st December 17, 02:27 AM

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** · 31st December 17, 02:55 AM

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.