ID on a tartan

[slohairt]

Oh, they are very different, Glen, and that's not even counting Ancient, Weathered, or Reproduction colour schemes and so on. On my website under Knife-Pleated Deluxe Kilt, the example kilt pictured is Graham of Menteith, as woven by Marton Mills.

It's just that I think in this case there's navy blue that hints upon purple and then there's just plain old purple! It's a grey area, I know... (Pardon the bad pun.)

On a related note, there is a purple tartan that is the same sett as Graham of Menteith except the azure blue stripe is yellow. It's in a Wilson's pattern book and it doesn't doesn't have a name, just a number.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

In terms of tartan colors, I don't think a change from blue to purple constitutes a different tartan, just a color variation of the same tartan (along the lines of modern, ancient, weathered, etc).

Changing blue to purple is not the same as changing blue to red, or red to green, which would actually give you a different tartan.

Why do I say this? Historic precidence.

I quote from The 1819 Key Pattern Book: One Hundred Original Tartans, by Peter MacDonald, leading expert on the old tartan weaving firm Wilsons of Bannockburn. Speaking of Wilsons' dyes, he writes:

Although the threadcounts specify certain shades, these were only the principal shades and in practice they were sometimes replaced by another shade, usually from the same color group eg. lavender replacing purple. This appears to have particularly been true of the blue group where it is not uncommon to find samples with the blue specified in the '1819 KPB' replaced by purple or lavender. Generally, Wilsons seem to have used purple in predominantly red and green patterns such as Ross, and blue in setts than contained a lot of black for example, No. 230 or Argyle. Examination by the writer of early 19th century samples in conjunction with Wilsons' dye recipes and their comments about 'Officers Blue', suggests that even these blue, black and green type patterns were commonly woven with purple in place of blue. The exceptioon seems to have been the military patterns which, by about 1800 appear to have all used blue. Some late 18th century military specimens were woven with purple and it is possible that Officers' Blue was exactly that; the shade used for Officers' cloth. The blue dyestuff, indigo, was more expensive and difficult to work with than the Logwood used for the purple and indigo may have been reserved for officers in the same way that their coats used to be of a different, and more expensive, shade of red.

[RockyR]

Thanks for the historical slant, Matt. Very interesting!

[lethearen]

Makes sense. I knew that different mills' products could look different, but didn't realise they could be that dramatic. Thanks Rocky!

[Paul]

Here is my Graham of Mentieth woven by Lochcarron and sewn up by Hector Russell it does look different than some of the swatches shown here I thought I'd include it as an example of the difference between mills.

From what I've seen the modern version is a palish purple in a navy blue (if that makes sense). Different mills tend to have a different outlook on how purple or blue it should be.
Although note this:
http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tar....aspx?ref=4425

With "plaid" added to the tartan name it makes more sense if you make reference to that.

[McMurdo]

From what I've seen the modern version is a palish purple in a navy blue (if that makes sense). Different mills tend to have a different outlook on how purple or blue it should be.
Although note this:
http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tar....aspx?ref=4425

With "plaid" added to the tartan name it makes more sense if you make reference to that.

The different mills do produce different colours, the Lochcarron tartan is Blue and any Graham of Mentieth tartan I've ever seen is distinctly Blue.

[Paul]

The different mills do produce different colours, the Lochcarron tartan is Blue and any Graham of Mentieth tartan I've ever seen is distinctly Blue.

The link I posted explains the purple

[McMurdo]

The link I posted explains the purple

I saw that, however every piece I've ever seen is blue not purple, I like it either way, it is the family tartan and quite a nice one I think regardless of which mill did what, but in all the Highland Games I've gone to or anytime I've run into another Graham the tartans are Green and Blue not Green and Purple so it is rather interesting.

[Paul]

I saw that, however every piece I've ever seen is blue not purple, I like it either way, it is the family tartan and quite a nice one I think regardless of which mill did what, but in all the Highland Games I've gone to or anytime I've run into another Graham the tartans are Green and Blue not Green and Purple so it is rather interesting.

It's weird, isnt it?
My Campbell tartan looked completely different from everyone else at the Campbell clan tent at The Gathering. Mine was much darker with thicker lines and the suqares were around 2x bigger than the others there. Mine is House of Edgar and theirs were all different mills - but the tartan looked almost the exact same to one another.

[McMurdo]

Yeah it really is weird, the Graham of Mentieth is one of my favourite kilts, I'm not sure I like it purple though.