Stewart Old Modern

**Kilted in Maine** · 17th March 08, 07:26 AM

"Old Modern" - is this an oxymoron tartan?

Assume it is a variant of the stewart tartan but I could not find it on the Scottish Tartan's Authority - Ferret.

Is it a fashion or an "official" tartan?

**Tattoo Bradley** · 17th March 08, 07:36 AM

Without looking that tartan up I can say this.

"Old" is probably referring to the sett and colors

"Modern" is definitely referring to the SHADE of the color

**M. A. C. Newsome** · 17th March 08, 04:43 PM

Brad's got it.

Ancient, modern, weathered, etc. These terms refer to the shade or hue in which the tartan is woven.

Terms like hunting and dress refer to different tartans entirely. So you can have the Hunting Stewart in the modern or ancient or weathered colors.

Old is usually used to refer to a tartan that is actually older in date than another tartan. This is to avoid confusion with ancient, which refers to the colors, not the age. So the Old Stewart tartan can be woven in the modern or ancient colors.

But the frustrating truth is that it's not really as cut and dry as all that. The whole idea of tartans being available in modern/ancient/weathered color schemes is a twentieth century phenomenon. That means that in older records from the nineteenth century, if you saw the term "Ancient Stewart" it would be in reference to what we would call "Old Stewart" today, in the modern colors, or "modern Old Stewart."

And not every mill uses this terminology. For instance, Strathmore uses the term "Old Colors" instead of "Ancient" for their lighter shades of tartan.

See this article for more info:
http://albanach.org/colors.html