Setts Of The Scottish Tartans $20

[OC Richard]

I can't recommend enough Peter's site

https://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/

Anyone interested in tartan history will be rewarded by reading through the numerous articles here:

https://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/research.htm

Pretty much every question I've had about various tartans is answered there.

[User]

I don't know if I've said it before. If I haven't, it needs to be said. If I have, it bears repeating.

Thank you Peter for all the help you've provided and knowledge you've shared!

[DCampbell16B]

Well, I need to poke Peter with a soft cushion to get him to write up his procedure for reproducing tartan from portraits. The Grant tartan is recent, but someday he said he would do Campbell of Ardmaddie.

Poke, poke...

[OC Richard]

Well, I need to poke Peter with a soft cushion to get him to write up his procedure for reproducing tartan from portraits.

Correct me if I'm wrong Peter, my guess is that it's a combination of having in-person access to the portrait, studying the tartan as painted very carefully, noting a number of frustrating inconsistencies committed by the artist (or were these inconsistencies present in the actual cloth?) and using encyclopaedic knowledge of historical tartan design to overcome these obstacles and arrive at an educated best-guess estimate of what the original fabric looked like.

It's pretty much the life of the historian, for now we see through a glass, darkly.

[figheadair]

Correct me if I'm wrong Peter, my guess is that it's a combination of having in-person access to the portrait, studying the tartan as painted very carefully, noting a number of frustrating inconsistencies committed by the artist (or were these inconsistencies present in the actual cloth?) and using encyclopaedic knowledge of historical tartan design to overcome these obstacles and arrive at an educated best-guess estimate of what the original fabric looked like.

It's pretty much the life of the historian, for now we see through a glass, darkly.

Absolutely spot on Richard. There is no alternative to having access to the portraits, as well as specimens of the period to study, and the time to do so.

[Canadian Vet]

There are a few photos of tartans in the book, but the main list of tartans are illustrated like this, which to me is the clearest way to view the structure of tartans.

Looks like the array of medal ribbons on a North Korean General's left breast.

[OC Richard]

Absolutely spot on Richard. There is no alternative to having access to the portraits, as well as specimens of the period to study, and the time to do so.

Good to find out my estimations were correct!

I did forget that in addition to inconsistencies/errors by the artist, just as frustrating for me has been an artist's vagueness. I want the artists to clearly tell us what they see (or what they think they see). Not be lazy and make a fuzzy blob.

Having the rare chance for in-person close-up looks at some of the earliest known sporrans is what made me spend one of my precious two days-off in 2024 taking the train to Edinburgh and visiting the Portrait Gallery. None of the reproductions of this painting revealed the details I could see in person.

BTW I just now looked at your research articles page and didn't see this one (Lord Duffus). I can't make heads or tails out of some of it. Ditto the Laird Grant Champion and Piper paintings.