Tartan - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Tartan is a pattern consisting of criss-crossed horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in many other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. Scottish kilt

Kilt

The kilt is a knee-length garment with pleats at the rear, originating in the traditional dress of men and boys in the Scottish Highlands of the 16th century. Since the 19th century it has become associated with the wider culture of Scotland in general, or with Celtic heritage even more broadly...

s almost always have tartan patterns. Tartan is one of the patterns known as plaid

Plaid (pattern)

For other meanings, see plaid.A plaid is a pattern consisting of crossed horizontal and vertical bands in two or more colors in woven cloth.Common examples of plaid patterns include:*Tartan, the pattern most commonly associated with plaid....

in North America, but in Scotland, a plaid is a tartan cloth slung over the shoulder

Shoulder

The human shoulder is made up of three bones: the clavicle , the scapula , and the humerus as well as associated muscles, ligaments and tendons. The articulations between the bones of the shoulder make up the shoulder joints. The major joint of the shoulder is the glenohumeral joint, which...

, or a blanket

Blanket

A blanket is a type of bedding, generally speaking, a large piece of cloth, intended to keep the user warm, especially while sleeping. Blankets are distinguished from sheets by their thickness and purpose; the thickest sheet is still thinner than the lightest blanket. Blankets are generally used...

.

Tartan is made with alternating bands of coloured (pre-dyed) threads woven as both warp

Warp (weaving)

In weaving cloth, the warp is the set of lengthwise yarns that are held in tension on a frame or loom. The yarn that is inserted over-and-under the warp threads is called the weft, woof, or filler. Each individual warp thread in a fabric is called a warp end or end. Warp means "that which is thrown...

and weft

Weft

In weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn through the warp yarns to create cloth. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn"....

at right angle

Right angle

In geometry and trigonometry, a right angle is an angle that bisects the angle formed by two halves of a straight line. More precisely, if a ray is placed so that its endpoint is on a line and the adjacent angles are equal, then they are right angles...

s to each other. The weft is woven in a simple twill

Twill

Twill is a type of textile weave with a pattern of diagonal parallel ribs . This is done by passing the weft thread over one or more warp threads and then under two or more warp threads and so on, with a "step" or offset between rows to create the characteristic diagonal pattern. Because of this...

, two over - two under the warp, advancing one thread each pass. This forms visible diagonal lines where different colours cross, which give the appearance of new colours blended from the original ones. The resulting blocks of colour repeat vertically and horizontally in a distinctive pattern of squares and lines known as a sett.

The Dress Act of 1746 attempted to bring the warrior clans under government control by banning the tartan and other aspects of Gaelic culture. When the law was repealed in 1782, it was no longer ordinary Highland dress, but was adopted instead as the symbolic national dress of Scotland.

Until the middle of the nineteenth century, the highland tartans were associated with regions or districts, rather than by any specific clan

Scottish clan

Scottish clans , give a sense of identity and shared descent to people in Scotland and to their relations throughout the world, with a formal structure of Clan Chiefs recognised by the court of the Lord Lyon, King of Arms which acts as an authority concerning matters of heraldry and Coat of Arms...

. This was because tartan designs were produced by local weavers for local tastes and would tend to make use of the natural dye

Natural dye

Natural dyes are dyes or colorants derived from plants, invertebrates, or minerals. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable dyes from plant sources – roots, berries, bark, leaves, and wood — and other organic sources such as fungi and lichens....

s available in that area. The patterns were simply different regional checked-cloth patterns, where of the tartans most to one's liking - in the same way as people nowadays choose what colours and patterns they prefer in their clothing. Thus, it was not until the mid-nineteenth century that specific tartans became associated with Scottish clan

Scottish clan

s or Scottish families, or simply institutions who are (or wish to be seen as) associated in some way with a Scottish heritage.

It is generally stated that the most popular tartans today are the Black Watch
Black Watch
The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The unit's traditional colours were retired in 2011 in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II....

(also known as Old Campbell, Grant Hunting, Universal, Government) and Royal Stewart
Royal Stewart Tartan
The Royal Stewart Tartan is the best known tartan of the royal House of Stewart, and is also the personal tartan of Queen Elizabeth II. It is appropriate for all subjects of Elizabeth II to wear the Royal Stewart tartan , in much the same way that clansmen may wear the tartan of their clan chief...

. Today tartan is no longer limited to textiles but is used on non-woven mediums, such as paper, plastics, packaging, and wall coverings.

Etymology and terminology

The English

English language

English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

word tartan is derived from the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

tiretain. This French word is probably derived from the verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

tirer in reference to woven

Woven

A woven is a cloth formed by weaving. It only stretches in the bias directions , unless the threads are elastic. Woven cloth usually frays at the edges, unless measures are taken to counter this, such as the use of pinking shears or hemming.Woven fabrics are worked on a loom and made of many...

cloth (as opposed to knitted

Knitting

Knitting is a method by which thread or yarn may be turned into cloth or other fine crafts. Knitted fabric consists of consecutive rows of loops, called stitches. As each row progresses, a new loop is pulled through an existing loop. The active stitches are held on a needle until another loop can...

cloth). Today tartan usually refers to coloured patterns, though originally a tartan did not have to be made up of any pattern at all. As late as the 1830s tartan was sometimes described as "plain coloured ... without pattern". Patterned cloth from the Gaelic speaking Scottish Highlands

Scottish Highlands

The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...

was called breacan, meaning many colours. Over time the meanings of tartan and breacan were combined to describe certain type of pattern on a certain type of cloth. The pattern of a tartan is called a sett. The sett is made up of a series of woven threads which cross at right angle

Right angle

s.

Today tartan is generally used to describe the pattern, not limited to textiles. In America the term plaid is commonly used to describe tartan. The word plaid, derived from the Scottish Gaelic plaide, meaning "blanket", was first used of any rectangular garment, sometimes made up of tartan, particularly that which preceded the modern kilt (see: belted plaid

Belted plaid

The belted plaid is a large blanket-like piece of fabric which is wrapped around one's body with the material pleated or, more accurately, loosely gathered and secured at the waist by means of a belt...

). In time, plaid was used to describe blankets themselves.

Construction

Each thread in the warp

Warp (weaving)

crosses each thread in the weft

Weft

In weaving, weft or woof is the yarn which is drawn through the warp yarns to create cloth. In North America, it is sometimes referred to as the "fill" or the "filling yarn"....

at right angles. Where a thread in the warp crosses a thread of the same colour in the weft they produce a solid colour on the tartan, while a thread crossing another of a different colour produces an equal mixture of the two colours. Thus, a sett of two base colours produces three different colours including one mixture. The total number of colours, including mixtures, increases quadratically

Quadratic growth

In mathematics, a function or sequence is said to exhibit quadratic growth when its values are proportional to the square of the function argument or sequence position, in the limit as the argument or sequence position goes to infinity...

with the number of base colours so a sett of six base colours produces fifteen mixtures and a total of twenty-one different colours. This means that the more stripes and colours used, the more blurred and subdued the tartan's pattern becomes.

The sequence of threads, known as the sett, starts at an edge and either repeats or reverses on what are called pivot points. In diagram A, the sett reverses at the first pivot, then repeats, then reverses at the next pivot, and will carry on in this manner horizontally. In diagram B, the sett reverses and repeats in the same way as the warp, and also carries on in the same manner vertically. The diagrams left illustrate the construction of a "symmetrical" tartan. However, on an "asymmetrical" tartan, the sett does not reverse at the pivots, it just repeats at the pivots. Also, some tartans (very few) do not have exactly the same sett for the warp and weft. This means the warp and weft will have alternate thread counts.

Tartan is recorded by counting the threads of each colour that appear in the sett. The thread count not only describes the width of the stripes on a sett, but also the colours used. For example, the thread count "K4 R24 K24 Y4" corresponds to 4 black threads, 24 red threads, 24 black threads, 4 yellow threads. The first and last threads of the thread count are the pivot points. Though thread counts are indeed quite specific, they can to be modified in certain circumstances, depending on the desired size of the tartan. For example, the sett of a tartan (about 6 inches) may be too large to fit upon the face of a neck tie. In this case the thread count has to be reduced in proportion (about 3 inches).

Colour: shades and meaning

The shades of colour in tartan can be altered to produce variations of the same tartan. The resulting variations are termed: modern, ancient, and muted. These terms refer to colour only. Modern represents a tartan that is coloured using chemical dye, as opposed to natural dye. In the mid-19th century natural dyes began to be replaced by chemical dyes which were easier to use and were more economic for the booming tartan industry. Chemical dyes tended to produce a very strong, dark colour compared to the natural dyes. In modern colours, setts made up of blue, black and green tend be obscured. Ancient refers to a lighter shade of tartan. These shades are meant to represent the colours that would result from fabric aging over time. Muted refers to tartan which is shade between modern and ancient. This type of tartan is very modern, dating only from the early 1970s. This shade is said to be the closest match to the shades attained by natural dyes used before the mid-19th century.

The idea that the various colours used in tartan have a specific meaning is purely a modern one. One such myth is that red tartans were "battle tartans", designed so they would not show blood. Many recently created tartans, such as Canadian provincial and territorial

Provinces and territories of Canada

The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...

tartans and American state tartans, are designed with certain symbolic meaning for the colours used. For example the colour green sometimes symbolises prairie

Prairie

Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...

s or forests, blue can symbolise lakes and rivers, and the colour yellow is sometimes used to symbolise various crops

Crop (agriculture)

A crop is a non-animal species or variety that is grown to be harvested as food, livestock fodder, fuel or for any other economic purpose. Major world crops include maize , wheat, rice, soybeans, hay, potatoes and cotton. While the term "crop" most commonly refers to plants, it can also include...

History

Origins

Today tartan may be mostly associated with Scotland, however the earliest evidence of tartan is found far afield from the British Isles. According to the textile historian E. J. W. Barber, the Hallstatt culture

Hallstatt culture

The Hallstatt culture was the predominant Central European culture from the 8th to 6th centuries BC , developing out of the Urnfield culture of the 12th century BC and followed in much of Central Europe by the La Tène culture.By the 6th century BC, the Hallstatt culture extended for some...

of Central Europe, which is linked with ancient Celtic populations and flourished between 400 BC to 100 BC, produced tartan-like textiles. Some of them were recently discovered, remarkably preserved in Salzburg

Salzburg

-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...

, Austria. Also, textile analysis of fabric from Indo-European

Proto-Indo-Europeans

The Proto-Indo-Europeans were the speakers of the Proto-Indo-European language , a reconstructed prehistoric language of Eurasia.Knowledge of them comes chiefly from the linguistic reconstruction, along with material evidence from archaeology and archaeogenetics...

Tocharian

Tocharians

The Tocharians were the Tocharian-speaking inhabitants of the Tarim Basin, making them the easternmost speakers of Indo-European languages in antiquity. They were known as, or at least closely related to, the Yuezhi of Chinese sources...

graves in Western China has shown it to be similar to the Iron Age

Iron Age

The Iron Age is the archaeological period generally occurring after the Bronze Age, marked by the prevalent use of iron. The early period of the age is characterized by the widespread use of iron or steel. The adoption of such material coincided with other changes in society, including differing...

Hallstatt culture of central Europe. Tartan-like leggings were found on the "Cherchen Man", a 3, 000 year-old mummy

Mummy

A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...

, found in the Taklamakan Desert in western China (see Tarim mummies

Tarim mummies

The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1900 BC to 200 AD. Some of the mummies are frequently associated with the presence of the Indo-European Tocharian languages in the Tarim Basin, although the evidence is not...

). Similar finds have been found in central Europe and Scandinavia. The earliest documented tartan in Britain, known as the Falkirk tartan, dates from the 3rd century AD. It was uncovered at Falkirk

Falkirk

Falkirk is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland. It lies in the Forth Valley, almost midway between the two most populous cities of Scotland; north-west of Edinburgh and north-east of Glasgow....

in Stirlingshire

Stirlingshire

Stirlingshire or the County of Stirling is a registration county of Scotland, based around Stirling, the former county town. It borders Perthshire to the north, Clackmannanshire and West Lothian to the east, Lanarkshire to the south, and Dunbartonshire to the south-west.Until 1975 it was a county...

, Scotland, about 400 metres north-west of the Antonine Wall

Antonine Wall

The Antonine Wall is a stone and turf fortification built by the Romans across what is now the Central Belt of Scotland, between the Firth of Forth and the Firth of Clyde. Representing the northernmost frontier barrier of the Roman Empire, it spanned approximately 39 miles and was about ten feet ...

. The fragment was stuffed into the mouth of the earthenware pot containing almost 2, 000 Roman coins. The Falkirk tartan is simple check design, of natural light and dark wool. Early forms of tartan such as this are thought to have been invented in pre-Roman times, and would have been popular among the inhabitants of the northern Roman provinces as well as in other parts of Northern Europe

Northern Europe

Northern Europe is the northern part or region of Europe. Northern Europe typically refers to the seven countries in the northern part of the European subcontinent which includes Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Finland and Sweden...

such as Jutland

Jutland

Jutland , historically also called Cimbria, is the name of the peninsula that juts out in Northern Europe toward the rest of Scandinavia, forming the mainland part of Denmark. It has the North Sea to its west, Kattegat and Skagerrak to its north, the Baltic Sea to its east, and the Danish–German...

where the same pattern was prevalent.

Tartan, as we know it today, is not thought to have existed in Scotland before the 16th century. By the late 16th century there are numerous references to striped or checkered plaids. It is not until the late 17th or early 18th century that any kind of uniformity in tartan is thought to have occurred. Martin Martin

Martin Martin

Martin Martin was a Scottish writer best known for his work A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland . This book is particularly noted for its information on the St Kilda archipelago...

, in his A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland published in 1703, wrote that Scottish tartans could be used to distinguish the inhabitants of different regions. He expressly wrote that the inhabitants of various islands and the mainland of the highlands were not all dressed alike, but that the setts and colours of the various tartans varied from isle to isle. As he does not mention the use of a special pattern by each family, it would appear that such a distinction is a modern one.

For many centuries, the patterns were loosely associated with the weavers of a particular area, though it was common for highlanders

Scottish Highlands

to wear a number of different tartans at the same time. A 1587 charter granted to Hector Maclean

Clan MacLean

Clan Maclean is a Highland Scottish clan. They are one of the oldest clans in the Highlands and owned large tracts of land in Argyll as well as the Inner Hebrides. Many early MacLeans became famous for their honour, strength and courage in battle. They were involved in many clan skirmishes with...

of Duart

Duart Castle

Duart Castle or Caisteal Dhubhairt in Scottish Gaelic is a castle on the Isle of Mull, off the west coast of Scotland, within the council area of Argyll and Bute...

requires feu duty on land paid as 60 ell

Ell

An ell , is a unit of measurement, approximating the length of a man's arm.Several national forms existed, with different lengths, includingthe Scottish ell ,the Flemish ell ,the French ell...

s of cloth of white, black and green colours. A witness of the 1689 Battle of Killiecrankie

Battle of Killiecrankie

-References:*Reid, Stuart, The Battle of Kiellliecrankkie -External links:* *...

describes "McDonnell

Glengarry

The glengarry bonnet is a traditional boat-shaped hat without a peak made of thick-milled woollen material with a toorie on top, a rosette cockade on the left, and ribbons hanging down behind...

's men in their triple stripes". From 1725 the government force of the Highland Independent Companies introduced a standardised tartan chosen to avoid association with any particular clan

Scottish clan

, and this was formalised when they became the Black Watch

Black Watch

The Black Watch, 3rd Battalion, Royal Regiment of Scotland is an infantry battalion of the Royal Regiment of Scotland. The unit's traditional colours were retired in 2011 in a ceremony led by Queen Elizabeth II....

regiment in 1739.

The most effective fighters for Jacobitism

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

were the supporting Scottish clan

Scottish clan

s, leading to an association of tartans with the Jacobite

Jacobitism

cause. Efforts to pacify the Highlands led to the 1746 Dress Act banning tartans except for the Highland regiments of the British army. ″[I]t was probably their use of it which gave birth to the idea of differentiating tartan by clans; for as the Highland regiments were multiplied ... so their tartan uniforms were differentiated." The Act was repealed in 1782 due to the efforts of the Highland Society of London. William Wilson & Sons of Bannockburn

Bannockburn

Bannockburn is a village immediately south of the city of Stirling in Scotland. It is named after the Bannock Burn, a burn running through the village before flowing into the River Forth.-History:...

became the foremost weaving manufacturer around 1770 as suppliers of tartan to the military. Wilson corresponded with his agents in the highlands to get information and samples of cloth from the clan districts to enable him to reproduce "perfectly genuine patterns" and recorded over 200 setts by 1822, many of which were tentatively named. The Cockburn Collection of named samples made by Wilsons was put together between 1810 and 1820 and is now in the Mitchell Library

Mitchell Library

The Mitchell Library is a large public library and centre of the public library system of Glasgow, Scotland.-History:The library was established with a bequest from Stephen Mitchell, a wealthy tobacco manufacturer, whose company, Stephen Mitchell & Son, would become one of the constituent members...

in Glasgow

Glasgow

Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...

. At this time many setts were simply numbered, or given fanciful names such as the "Robin Hood

Robin Hood

Robin Hood was a heroic outlaw in English folklore. A highly skilled archer and swordsman, he is known for "robbing from the rich and giving to the poor", assisted by a group of fellow outlaws known as his "Merry Men". Traditionally, Robin Hood and his men are depicted wearing Lincoln green clothes....

" tartan, not associated with any specific clan.

By the 19th century the Highland romantic revival inspired by James Macpherson

James Macpherson

James Macpherson was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of poems.-Early life:...

's Ossian

Ossian

Ossian is the narrator and supposed author of a cycle of poems which the Scottish poet James Macpherson claimed to have translated from ancient sources in the Scots Gaelic. He is based on Oisín, son of Finn or Fionn mac Cumhaill, anglicised to Finn McCool, a character from Irish mythology...

poems and the writings of Walter Scott

Walter Scott

Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....

led to wider interest, with clubs like the Celtic Society of Edinburgh welcoming Lowlanders. The pageantry invented for the 1822 visit of King George IV to Scotland

Visit of King George IV to Scotland

The 1822 visit of King George IV to Scotland was the first visit of a reigning monarch to Scotland since 1650. Government ministers had pressed the King to bring forward a proposed visit to Scotland, to divert him from diplomatic intrigue at the Congress of Verona.The visit increased his popularity...

brought a sudden demand for tartan cloth and made it the national dress of the whole of Scotland rather than just the highlands and islands, with the invention of many new clan-specific tartans to suit.

Royal patronage and the tartan craze

The popularity of tartan was greatly increased by the royal visit of George IV to Edinburgh in 1822

Visit of King George IV to Scotland

. George IV was the first reigning monarch to visit Scotland in 171 years. The festivities surrounding the event were originated by Sir Walter Scott who founded the Celtic Society of Edinburgh in 1820. Scott and Celtic Society members urged Scots to attend festivities "all plaided and plumed in their tartan array". One contemporary writer sarcastically described the pomp that surrounded the celebrations as "Sir Walter's Celtified Pagentry".

Following the Royal visit several books which documented tartans added to the craze. James Logan's romanticised work The Scottish Gael, published in 1831, was one such publication which led the Scottish tartan industry to invent clan tartans. The first publication showing plates of clan tartans was the Vestiarium Scoticum
Vestiarium Scoticum
The Vestiarium Scoticum was first published by William Tait of Edinburgh in a limited edition in 1842...

published in 1842. The Vestiarium was the work of two brothers: John Sobieski and Charles Allen Hay. The brothers, who called themselves John Sobieski Stolberg Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart, first appeared in Scotland in 1822. The two claimed to be grandsons of Prince Charles Edward Stuart and his wife Princess Louise of Stolberg

Princess Louise of Stolberg-Gedern

Princess Louise Maximilienne Caroline Emmanuele of Stolberg-Gedern was the wife of the Jacobite claimant to the English and Scottish thrones Charles Edward Stuart...

, and consequently later became known as the "Sobieski Stuarts". The Sobieski Stuarts claimed that the Vestiarium was based upon a copy of an ancient manuscript on clan tartans—a manuscript which they never managed to produce. The Vestiarium was followed by equally dubious The Costume of the Clans, two years later. The romantic enthusiasm that Logan and the Sobieski Stuarts generated with their publications led the way for other tartan books in the 19th century.

Just twenty years after her uncle's visit to Scotland, Queen Victoria and her husband Prince Albert made their first trip to the Scottish Highlands. The queen and prince bought Balmoral Castle

Balmoral Castle

Balmoral Castle is a large estate house in Royal Deeside, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is located near the village of Crathie, west of Ballater and east of Braemar. Balmoral has been one of the residences of the British Royal Family since 1852, when it was purchased by Queen Victoria and her...

in 1848 and hired a local architect to re-model the estate in "Scots Baronial

Scottish baronial style

The Scottish Baronial style is part of the Gothic Revival architecture style, using stylistic elements and forms from castles, tower houses and mansions of the Gothic architecture period in Scotland, such as Craigievar Castle and Newark Castle, Port Glasgow. The revival style was popular from the...

" style. Prince Albert personally took care of the interior design, where he made great use of tartan. He utilised the red Royal Stewart and the green Hunting Stewart tartans for carpets, while using the Dress Stewart for curtains and upholstery. The queen designed the Victoria, and the prince was the designer of the Balmoral tartan which still is used today as a royal tartan. Victoria and Albert spent a considerable amount of time at their estate, and in doing so hosted many "Highland" activities. Victoria was attended by pipers and her children were attired in Highland dress. Prince Albert himself loved watching the Highland games

Highland games

Highland games are events held throughout the &Highland games are events held throughout the &Highland games are events held throughout the &(-è_çà in Scotland and other countries as a way of celebrating Scottish and Celtic culture and heritage, especially that of the Scottish Highlands. Certain...

. Ironically, as the craze swept over Scotland, the Highland population suffered grievously from the Highland Clearances

Highland Clearances

The Highland Clearances were forced displacements of the population of the Scottish Highlands during the 18th and 19th centuries. They led to mass emigration to the sea coast, the Scottish Lowlands, and the North American colonies...

, when thousands of Gaelic-speaking Scots from the Highlands and Isles were evicted by landlords (in many cases the very men who would have been their own clan chiefs) to make room for sheep.

Clan tartans

It is generally regarded that "clan tartans" date no earlier than the beginning of the 19th century. It is maintained by many that clan tartans were not in use at the time of the Battle of Culloden in 1746. The method of identifying friend from foe was not through tartans but by the colour of ribbon worn upon the bonnet

Bonnet (headgear)

Bonnets are a variety of headgear for both sexes, which have in common only the absence of a brim. Bonnet derives from the same word in French, where it originally indicated a type of material...

. David Morier's well-known painting of the Highland charge at the Battle of Culloden

Battle of Culloden

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...

shows the clansman wearing various tartans. The setts painted all differ from one another and very few of the those painted show any resemblance to today's clan tartans. Contemporary portraits show that although tartan is of an early date, the pattern worn depended not on the wearer's clan, but upon his or her location, or personal taste. The idea of groups of men wearing the same tartan is thought to originate from the military units in the 18th century. Evidence suggests that in 1725 the Independent Highland Companies may have worn a uniform tartan.

The naming and registration of official clan tartans began on April 8, 1815, when the Highland Society of London

Highland Society of London

The Highland Society of London is a charity registered in England, with "the view of establishing and supporting schools in the Highlands and in the Northern parts of Great Britain, for relieving distressed Highlanders at a distance from their native homes, for preserving the antiquities and...

(founded 1778) resolved that all the clan chiefs each "be respectfully solicited to furnish the Society with as Much of the Tartan of his Lordship's Clan as will serve to Show the Pattern and to Authenticate the Same by Attaching Thereunto a Card bearing the Impression of his Lordship's Arms." Many had no idea of what their tartan might be, but were keen to comply and to provide authentic signed and sealed samples. Alexander Macdonald, 2nd Baron Macdonald

Baron Macdonald

Baron Macdonald, of Slate in the County of Antrim, is a title in the Peerage of Ireland. It was created in 1776 for Sir Alexander Macdonald, 9th Baronet, of Sleat. The Macdonald family descends from Uisdean Macdonald , also known as Hugh Macdonald, illegitimate son of Alexander Macdonald, Earl of...

of Sleat was so far removed from his Highland heritage that he wrote to the Society: "Being really ignorant of what is exactly The Macdonald Tartan, I request you will have the goodness to exert every Means in your power to Obtain a perfectly genuine Pattern, Such as Will Warrant me in Authenticating it with my Arms."

Today tartan and "clan tartan" is an important part of a Scottish clan. Almost all Scottish clans have several tartans attributed to their name. Several clans have "official" tartans. Although it is possible for anyone to create a tartan and name it any name they wish, the only person with the authority to make a clan's tartan "official" is the chief. In some cases, following such recognition from the clan chief, the clan tartan is recorded and registered by the Lord Lyon King of Arms. Once approved by the Lord Lyon, after recommendation by the Advisory Committee on Tartan, the clan tartan is then recorded in the Lyon Court Books. In at least one instance a clan tartan appears in the heraldry of a clan chief and is considered by the Lord Lyon as the "proper" tartan of the clan.

Other tartans

In addition to clan tartans, there are many tartans created especially for individuals, families, districts, institutions, and corporations. There are even specific commemorative tartans for various events and certain ethnic groups. Tartan has had a long history with the military and today many military units — particularly those within the Commonwealth

Commonwealth of Nations

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...

— have tartan dress uniforms.

There are many regional tartans, officially recognised by government bodies. In Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, most provinces and territories

Provinces and territories of Canada

The provinces and territories of Canada combine to make up the world's second-largest country by area. There are ten provinces and three territories...

have an official tartan. Canada, itself, has an official national tartan that was originally designed to commemorate the introduction of its new maple leaf flag, and was made an official national emblem in 2011. Several Canadian counties and municipalities also have official tartans. Many of the states

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

of the United States of America also have official tartans. In Scotland at least two local government councils have official tartans.

Tartan is sometimes differentiated from another with the same name by the label dress or hunting. Dress tartans are based on the earasaid tartans worn by Highland women in the 17th and 18th centuries. Dress tartans tend to be made by replacing a prominent colour with the colour white. They are commonly used today in Highland dancing. Hunting tartans are also a Victorian conception. These tartans tend to be made up of subdued colours, such as dark blues and greens. Despite the name, hunting tartans have very little to do with actual hunting. Mourning tartans, though quite rare, are associated with death and funerals. They are usually designed using combinations of black and white.

Tartan has also been used by corporations in advertising campaigns. British Airways

British Airways

British Airways is the flag carrier airline of the United Kingdom, based in Waterside, near its main hub at London Heathrow Airport. British Airways is the largest airline in the UK based on fleet size, international flights and international destinations...

used a tartan design as part of its ethnic tailfin

British Airways ethnic liveries

In 1997 British Airways adopted a new livery. One part of this was a newly stylised version of the British Airways "Speedbird" logo, but the major change was the introduction of tail-fin art. Also known as the Utopia or world image tailfins, they used art and designs from international artists and...

re-branding. This design, Benyhone (from Scottish Gaelic: "Mountain of the birds") was one of the most widely used designs, being applied to 27 aircraft of the BA fleet. The "Burberry

Burberry

Burberry Group plc is a British luxury fashion house, manufacturing clothing, fragrance, and fashion accessories. Its distinctive tartan pattern has become one of its most widely copied trademarks. Burberry is most famous for its iconic trench coat, which was invented by founder Thomas Burberry...

Check", first designed in early 1920s, is an instantly recognisable tartan, known around the world.

Clever Victorian entrepreneurs not only created new tartans, but new tartan objects called tartanware. Tartan was incorporated in an assortment of common household objects such as snuffboxes, jewellery cases, tableware, sewing accessories, and desk items. Tourists visiting the Scottish Highlands went home with it, and Scottish-based businesses sent tartanware out as gifts to customers. Some of the more popular tartans were the Stewart, McDonald, McGregor, McDuff, MacBeth and Prince Charlie. Today tartanware is widely collected in England and Scotland.

Tartan in fashion

In the Victorian and Edwardian eras, tartan-clad garments featured in fashion catalogues. By then, tartan had shifted from being mainly a component of men's clothing to become an important part of women's fashion. In consequence of its association with the British aristocracy and military, tartan developed an air of dignity and exclusivity. Because of this, tartan has made reappearances in the world of fashion several times. For instance, tartan made a resurgence in its use in Punk fashion

Punk fashion

Punk fashion is the clothing, hairstyles, cosmetics, jewelry, and body modifications of the punk subculture. Punk fashion varies widely, ranging from Vivienne Westwood designs to styles modeled on bands like The Exploited. The distinct social dress of other subcultures and art movements, including...

. In the late 1970s punk music was a way for youth in the British Isles to voice their discontent with the ruling class

Ruling class

The term ruling class refers to the social class of a given society that decides upon and sets that society's political policy - assuming there is one such particular class in the given society....

. The unorthodox use of tartan, which had long been associated with authority and gentility

Gentry

Gentry denotes "well-born and well-bred people" of high social class, especially in the past....

, was then seen as the expression of discontent against modern society. In this way tartan, worn unconventionally, became an anti-establishment

Anti-establishment

An anti-establishment view or belief is one which stands in opposition to the conventional social, political, and economic principles of a society. The term was first used in the modern sense in 1958, by the British magazine New Statesman to refer to its political and social agenda...

symbol.

Not always a fashion symbol signifying rebellion or anti-authoritarianism, plaid has been more recently adopted by members of the hipster

Hipster (contemporary subculture)

Hipsters are a subculture of young, recently settled urban middle class adults and older teenagers with musical interests mainly in alternative rock that appeared in the 1990s...

fashion scene. While not used as a statement of any specific belief or idea like others who have adopted the pattern, plaid has become linked with the subculture's fashion. This mainly stems from the motif in the hipster scene of thrift store shopping, where plaid shirts are often in abundance.

Tartan registration

Depending upon how "different tartan" is defined, it has been estimated that there are about 3,500 to 7,000 different tartans, with around 150 new designs being created every year. With four ways of presenting the hues in the tartan – "modern", "ancient", "weathered" and "muted" colours – there are thus between about 14,000 recognized tartan variations to choose from. (The 7,000 figure above includes many of these variations counted as if different tartans).

Up until recently there had been no central, official tartan registry. In the absence of an official register, several independent organisations located in Scotland, Canada and the US documented and recorded tartan. In the 1960s, a Scottish society called the Scottish Tartans Society

Scottish Tartans Society

The Scottish Tartans Society , now defunct, was a society committed to the recording and preservation of woven tartan designs from around the world; it maintained the Register of All Publicly Known Tartans. The society was first formed in 1963 and existed for about 40 years...

(now defunct) was created to record and preserve all known tartan designs. The society's register, the Register of All Publicly Known Tartans (RAPKT), contains about 2,700 different designs of tartan. The society, however, ran into financial troubles in about the year 2000, and folded. Former members of the society then formed two new Scottish-based organisations – the Scottish Tartans Authority

Scottish Tartans Authority

The Scottish Tartans Authority is a Scottish based organisation dedicated to promoting the knowledge of Scottish tartans. It was first formed in 1995 by former members of the Scottish Tartans Society. The Scottish Tartans Authority maintains a database, called the International Tartan Index, with...

(STA) and the Scottish Tartans World Register (STWR). Both of these societies initially based their databases on the RAPKT. The STA's database, the International Tartan Index (ITI) consists of about 3,500 different tartans (with over 7,000, counting variants), as of 2004. The STWR's self-titled Scottish Tartans World Register database is made up of about 3,000 different designs as of 2004. Both organisations are registered Scottish charities and record new tartans (free in the case of STS and for a fee in the case of STWR) on request. The STA's ITI is larger in part because it has absorbed the entries recorded in the TartanArt database formerly maintained by the merged International Association of Tartan Studies and Tartan Educational and Cultural Association (IATS/TECA), based in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, and with whom the STA is directly affiliated.

The Scottish Register of Tartans (SRT) is Scotland's official tartan register. The SRT is maintained and administrated by the National Archives of Scotland

National Archives of Scotland

Based in Edinburgh, the National Archives of Scotland are the national archives of Scotland. The NAS claims to have one of the most varied collection of archives in Europe...

(NAS), a statutory body based in Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

. The aim of the Register is to provide a definitive and accessible resource to promote and preserve tartan. It also aims to be the definitive source for the registration of new tartans (that pass NAS criteria for inclusion). The register itself is made up of the existing registers of the STA and the STWR as they were at the time of the SRT's launch, and new registrations from February 5, 2009 onward. On the Register's website users can register new tartans (for a fee), search for and request the threadcounts of existing tartans and receive notifications of newly registered tartans. One criticism of the SRT and NAS's management of it is that its exclusivity, in both cost and criteria, necessarily mean that it cannot actually achieve its goals of definiteness, preservation and open access. The current version of the STA's ITI, for example, already contains a large number of tartans that do not appear in the SRT, and the gulf will only widen under current policy.

The 'right' or 'entitlement' to tartan

Many people only own tartan with which they feel associated, be it through a clan, family, surname, or military unit. Others choose their tartan only out of personal taste. Since the Victorian era

Victorian era

The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...

, 'authorities' on tartan have claimed that there is an etiquette

Etiquette

Etiquette is a code of behavior that delineates expectations for social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group...

to wearing tartan, specifically tartan attributed to clans or families. This concept of the 'entitlement' to certain tartans has led to the term of universal tartan, or free tartan, which describes tartan which, in the opinion of some, can be worn by anyone. Traditional examples of such are the Black Watch (also known as Government, Universal, and Campbell), Caledonian, Hunting Stewart, and Jacobite tartans. In the same line of opinion, some tartan attributed to the British Royal Family

British Royal Family

The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...

are claimed by some to be 'off limits' to non-royals. Even so, there are no rules on who can, or cannot, wear a particular tartan. Note that some modern tartans are protected by trade mark law, and the trade mark proprietor can, in certain circumstances, prevent others from selling that tartan. An example of one such tartan is the Burberry Check.

Many books on Scottish clans list such rules and guidelines. One such opinion is that people not bearing a clan surname, or surname claimed as a sept of a clan, should not wear the tartan of their mother's clan. This opinion is enforced by the fact that in the Scottish clan system, the Lord Lyon states that membership to a clan technically passes through the surname. This means that children who bear their father's surname belong to the father's clan (if any), and that children who bear their mother's surname (her maiden name) belong to their mother's clan (if any). Also, the Lord Lyon states that a clan tartan should only be worn by those who profess allegiance to that clan's chief. Some clan societies even claim that certain tartans are the personal property of a chief or chieftain, and in some cases they allow their clansfolk 'permission' to wear a tartan. According to the Scottish Tartans Authority

Scottish Tartans Authority

—which is closely associated with the Scottish tartan industry—the Balmoral tartan should not be worn by anyone who is not part of the British Royal Family. Even so, some weavers outside of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

ignore the "longstanding convention" of the British Royal Family's 'right' to this tartan. The society also claims that non-royals who wear this tartan are treated with "great disdain" by the Scottish tartan industry. Generally though, a more liberal attitude

Liberalism

Liberalism is the belief in the importance of liberty and equal rights. Liberals espouse a wide array of views depending on their understanding of these principles, but generally, liberals support ideas such as constitutionalism, liberal democracy, free and fair elections, human rights,...

is taken by those in the business of selling tartan, stressing that anyone may wear any tartan they like. These rules are however customs and conventions, there are no laws on who can or can not wear a certain tartan.

External links

Scottish Tartans Authority, a non-authoritative tartan register
Scottish Tartans World Register, a non-authoritative tartan register
The Scottish Register of Tartans, Scotland's official tartan register

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Etymology and terminology

Construction

Colour: shades and meaning

History

Origins

Royal patronage and the tartan craze

Clan tartans

Other tartans

Tartan in fashion

Tartan registration

The 'right' or 'entitlement' to tartan

See also

External links