The Setts of the Scottish Tartans

Thread sequences turn tartan from a familiar emblem into a precisely recorded textile in The Setts of the Scottish Tartans, ...

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Thread sequences turn tartan from a familiar emblem into a precisely recorded textile in The Setts of the Scottish Tartans, Donald Calder Stewart's study published by Oliver and Boyd in Edinburgh and London in 1950. Macdonald, Buchanan, Macrae and Stewart patterns appear with a tartan associated with Culloden and a portrait in traditional dress, and comparative plates distinguish related setts whose names alone reveal little. Technical illustrations show twill weave, the crossing of warp and weft and the colour changes where threads interlace. The plates record Stewart's versions of the patterns and do not prove that every clan tartan kept an unchanged design through Scottish history.

Thread sequences turn tartan from a familiar emblem into a precisely recorded textile in The Setts of the Scottish Tartans, Donald Calder Stewart's study published by Oliver and Boyd in Edinburgh and London in 1950. Macdonald, Buchanan, Macrae and Stewart patterns appear with a tartan associated with Culloden and a portrait in traditional dress, and comparative plates distinguish related setts whose names alone reveal little. Technical illustrations show twill weave, the crossing of warp and weft and the colour changes where threads interlace. The plates record Stewart's versions of the patterns and do not prove that every clan tartan kept an unchanged design through Scottish history.

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