What's Up with That Selvedge?

[figheadair]

Thanks to Peter we now have a range of tartans commercially available with herringbone selvedges.

https://www.houseofedgar.com/product...-single-width/

Isn't that "lost tartan" a stunner? They all are of course but that one speaks to me.

Which makes me wonder, what sort of selvedges did the Wilsons do?

Richard,

The majority of Wilsons' cloth had a standard 2/2 twill selvedge (like the rest of the material). As the 19th century progressed they increasingly wove a balanced sett, one in which the pattern repeats uniformly from the centre meaning that the pattern was the same on both selvedges.

Some of their older pieces, particularly military cloth, was woven offset meaning that one selvedge was on a pivot and the other had a selvedge mark or pattern (the traditional technique that allowed the cloth to be joined and the sett to repeat correctly). I have examined three pieces of their cloth with a herringbone selvedge mark: one, a 78th (Ross shire Buffs) kilt; a piece of MacColl and a piece of MacGillivray. These two civilian tartans were most likely commission pieces and in the case of the MacColl was a copy of an 18th century piece.

[OC Richard]

Thanks!

78th meaning MacKenzie tartan?

I notice in the 1819 KPB 78th tartan is listed, down from the three regiments which were wearing MacKenzie prior to 1809, the 71st, 72nd, and 78th. Sadly the 71st and 72nd were de-Highland-ised in 1809.

Oddly the 72nd, when re-Highland-ised in 1823, adopted PCES tartan instead of MacKenzie. Why was that?