Tartanology

The interest in and debate concerning clan tartans was kick-started by the famous Sobieski Stuart brothers, alleged grandsons of Bonnie Prince Charlie, John Hay Allen [John Sobieski Stolbert Stuart, Count d’Albanie] and Charles Hay Allen [Charles Stuart Hay Allen, Count d’Albanie (succeeding his brother)]. The pair were well known for engaging in all things Highland from wearing the traditional garb to hunting, writing poetry and collecting folklore.

The brothers edited and illustrated the famous Vestiarium Scoticum: from the Manuscript formerly in the Library of Scots College at Douay. With an Introduction and Notes, by John Sobieski Stuart that was published in 1842 by William Tait of Edinburgh. The book lists the clans from all over Scotland: Highlands, Lowlands and the Borders, ‘the order of Terteinis apperteinand unto ye chieff Hieland clannes’ and seventy-five colour plates illustrating the tartans of the clans listed.

Kilt from the Carmichael Collection, West Highland Museum

This impressive publication was based on an ancient manuscript the brothers possessed that was collated with a second manuscript from the library of the Monastery of St Augustine in Cadiz from 1571. Although in 1828 they displayed a 1721 Vestiarium manuscript to Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, this was not used as a source. 

The authority of all these texts was questioned and doubt cast over the brothers' integrity. A popular opinion was that the tartan manufacturers encouraged the publication as the popularity of tartan sky-rocketed from 1842. Either way, be it author or editor/illustrator, these two brothers were behind what Telfer Dunbar believed to be ‘probably the most controversial costume book ever written’.

The label reads: Kilt Worn by one of the Sobieski Stuart brothers. Alex Carmichael. 

Carmichael, noted for his extensive collection of folklore, also acquired an extremely significant tartan collection, including a kilt worn by one of the Sobieski brothers. Telfer Dunbar, one of the leading Highland Dress experts, noted:

 “Without doubt the greatest collector of early tartans and dress was Alexander Carmichael – compiler of Carmina Gadelica. His fine specimens of pre-nineteenth-century tartans with their lovely colour combinations and interesting weaves are far removed from the “clan” tartans of later times. Without the work of Alexander Carmichael our knowledge of early specimens of tartan would be very slight indeed.”

The tartan collection, unfortunately, no longer exists as one entity. The West Highland Museum has tartan clothing and NMS, Edinburgh holds some the pre-nineteenth century tartan swatches mentioned above but the rest was scattered after Carmichael’s death. Telfer Dunbar attained a number of samples that the team are eagerly trying to locate!

Jacket worn at Culloden, West Highland Museum

Over the coming months there will be a number of blog entries about this extraordinary facet of Carmichael’s collection. Tartan from the Carmichael Collection is on display in the West Highland Museum that is now open again Mon – Sat, 10 – 4. 

For those readers living in Edinburgh there is a long-term exhibition in the National Portrait Gallery 'Blazing with Crimson: Tartan Portraits'. 

References

Telfer Dunbar, J. History of Highland Dress (Oliver and Boyd: Edinburgh and London, 1962)

Images

Copyright Carsten Flieger

www.futuremuseum.co.uk

Tracking Down Treasures

Last Sunday the team made their way through beautifully snowy glens to Fort William to carry out a significant piece of work for the project. Fort William is home to the West Highland Museum, where the majority of the artefacts collected by Alexander Carmichael are held. Indeed, the museum has looked after the collection for a long time, first taking it in as a loan from Michael Carmichael, one of Alexander's grandsons, in 1948 before it was gifted to the museum in 1992.

Domhnall Uilleam placing a winnowing riddle for Carsten to photograph

In addition to research, this phase of the project aims to catalogue all the objects collected by Carmichael. In order to make a useful online catalogue photographs are required, so we hired Highland photographer Carsten Flieger to work with us. Now, the collection is complicated enough, with Uist plaids, Jacobite tartans, bronze brooches, bone pins, fossils, wool carders, sea bean charms, oil lamps and swords to contend with without adding in the fact that a large proportion of the collection is on display. Luckily for us museum volunteer and former curator Sally Archibald had given up her time to help us identify objects in storage and carefully remove and replace objects on display. No mean feat given the weight of some of the display cases - it's not just the tango that takes two.

Guinevere proving the worth of a porridge breakfast with the charms display case

The variety of objects, their dispersal throughout the museum and the need to consult different lists compiled over the years made the task quite complicated, however we soon had a production line of sorts going. Working from the largest objects to the smallest, prioritising items on display and trying to keep things made of similar materials together were key. Over the five days we were in Fort William, of the 200 or so items which were produced Carsten took over 300 photographs. What we've seen so far is first-class and we can hardly wait to see them all properly: ruddy-red tartans, shiny sea beans, ferocious flax combs. However, we're going to have to wait as we still have some objects to to photograph, which, now we have some experience, we know will probably take another two days.

Carsten and the bright lights making sure everything looks as it should

We are grateful to the West Highland Museum, especially manager Colleen Foggo for letting us work for as long as possible each day to get through the material and for being patient with us as we roved the different floors and rooms of the museum seeking out Carmichael-collected objects. We are indebted to Sally Archibald for the extraordinary energy and work she put into locating and identifying items.

Sally and Kirsty try to identify a brooch

The museum re-opens following its winter closure next week, so if you're in Fort William, do go in as it's well worth the time.

Carmichael on Kilts

It really should come as no surprise that an inveterate wearer of the kilt, as Alexander Carmichael most certainly was, expressed an opinion or two about the so-called ancient dress of the Highlanders. A lecture entitled ‘Bards and Bardism of the Highlanders’, which Carmichael had been working on over several sessions while he was resident in Cornwall, contains the following aside about kilts which deviates from the main thrust of the rest of his essay. Some of the purple prose pouring from Carmichael’s pen can be discerned from this extract but mercifully this has been kept to a minimum. Perhaps the exuberance of youth as well as a man still honing his skills and reaching to find his own voice are but some of the legitimate excuses for some of Carmichael’s stylistic excesses:

Some are for maintaining that the

kilt is but a modern dress. It is strange

what ready credence anything dem[ons]tr[a]ted to the High[lands]

is received. However distorted the facts and uniform

ed the story if it makes against the High[lands]

it receives easy credence. And on the

other hand again any thing said as

an antidote to this however respectable

the authority and well confined is

received with distrust.

There are many indisputable facts

that confirm the antiquity of the

kilt. There is an abbey in the Island

of Harris which is believed to be one of the

oldest pieces of architectural remains

in Scotland. The abbey is called Saint

Clemens = “Cill-a-Chliamain.”

Among curious figures on the

tower of this old abbey is a sculp-

tured figure of a Highlander. The

dress is exactly like that worn at the

present day. The kilt comes to the

cap of the knee while the rest of

the dress corresponds with that now worn.

Another impression is that tartan

is not old. This is another erroneous

impression. Tartan is old. In a Gaelic

M.S. of the 10th century the term breacan

literally chequered tartan is expressly

used. It is some what strange that

the English should pronounce the word

plaid more like the original G[aelic] pronounci

ation than the Scotch do. The English

pronounce the word as if written plad

while the Scotch pronounce it according

to the orthography. The original of the

word was plaide now confined

to the blanket. In ancient times when the

Highlanders were more given to hunt-

ing and fishing and battles and

perchance to creach lifting than they

are today their plaids joined their

blankets. Rolled up on these they slept securely

their bed the purple heath[er] and the curtains

the blue azure vaults of heaven.

It is likely that Carmichael is referring to a carved panel inset in the Irish manner (and possibly earlier than the actual church) which includes a kilted figure, that had formerly been mounted on the medieval parapet on Tùr Chliamainn or St Clement’s Tower as can be seen in the above image of Rodel Church, isle of Harris.

References:
CW 107, fol. 5r–6r
Image: Rodel Church, Harris