book: World Tartans by Iain Zaczek

[OC Richard]

Anyone else have this book? It was published by Barnes & Noble in 2001.

It's nice in many ways: it has many newer tartans, Irish tartans, and institutional/personal/etc tartans that aren't in the older traditional tartans books.

The illustrations, which seem to be computer-generated, have nice bright lively colouring.

Sometimes too colourful! The Meath tartan as it appears in the book has lovely strong hues but actual Meath tartan fabric I've seen is considerably duller. Many of the colours, in fact, don't seem to match any of the available colourings I've seen from various mills.

There are a couple interesting tartans in the book I've not seen elsewhere, the United States (designed by Malcolm Campbell) and the Victoria (Australia) (designed by Betty Johnston). I googled both and didn't find anyone selling these tartans.

There are a couple errors: the Caledonia tartan illustrated is not correct, and both St Columba and the Virginia Military Institute are shown as the same tartan.

One thing that's a bit off-putting is the vastly different sett sizes different tartans are shown in, which in some cases makes two similar tartans look far more different than they are. Some degree of consistency would have been nice.

All in all a very handy book to have!

[Inchessi]

It sounds like a neat reference book. I may have to add that one to my library. Is it of similar make-up as a Tying Flies book? Good pictures with the title under the fly?

[macwilkin]

I would recommend Brian Wilton's "Tartans" over "World Tartans".

T.

[Macman]

I have the book, and it is quite good in that it does have a lot of tartans that aren't in any of my other books. Also, it was a good price at one of the chain bookstores here. I did come across a number of errors in it, though, both printing and historical (I can't remember any of them off the top of my head), so don't take it as gospel.

[OC Richard]

I thought I should revive and add to this thread, because recently by chance I was looking at something in this book, and noticed yet another error.

So I hauled out The Setts of the Scottish Tartans, 2nd Edition, by Donald C Stewart FSA Scot (Shepheard-Walwyn London 1974) which I pretty much take as Gospel, and started comparing.

Wowza. Even though only maybe around half of the tartans in Zaczek are in Setts, I found a huge number of errors. I checked Zaczek and Setts against the tartans currently made by major mills.

A suprising number of the illustrations in Zaczek simply show a different tartan. It would take a lot of searching to find out what these really are, but anyhow the following have some random incorrect tartan shown:

Black Watch (come on, how could you mess up this one?)
Caledonia
"Douglas Ancient Dress" (sort of like the VS Douglas)
Fraser Hunting
Grant
2nd Kennedy tartan shown
MacAllister
MacArthur
Ogilvy
Rothesay
Ruthven
Stewart of Galloway

Then there's the colour errors.

Several have the area, band, or line which should be crimson instead shown in red. This really ruins the effect of MacNab for one.

These are:

Crawford
Dalziel
Lindsay
MacBean/MacBain
MacNab
Rose

A few tartans with the usual blue & green background have the blue changed to purple:

Colquhoun
Dundas
Ferguson

Some other colour errors:

Baird: triple purple stripes shown red
Fletcher: red line in centre of green area shown black
MacDuff: two black lines changed to sky blue
MacLean of Duart: the light blue/mid blue/light blue portion has been changed to an unbroken light blue band
Ramsay: pair of crimson lines shown black

The oddest colour error is with Cranston: the background colours light green and dark green have been reversed.

Then there's pattern errors.

Anderson: two red lines in the green area are shown tripled
Chisholm: two extra red lines have been added in the green band
MacAlpine: Setts shows no blue, just a black pattern on green, just as House of Edgar makes it. But Zaczek shows a tartan with added blue bands, which Strathmore and Lochcarron make
MacDonald of Staffa: several errors in this very complex tartan. House of Edgar makes the correct Smith 1850 pattern
MacDougall: the tartan shown is a bit like one of the four MacDougall tartans shown in Setts
MacRae: six blue lines on the red band are shown as two green lines.

Then there's various oddities:

Four versions of Culloden are shown, only one the original purple & yellow
Cumming: the cluster of three bands green/red/black, which are rather wide in the source (Smibert 1850) and in Lochcarron's version, in Zaczek are dramatically shrunk, following the way House of Edgar weaves it
Morrison: only a modern red variant is shown

[Mike_Oettle]

So for all the fanfare, this book seems like one to avoid – a pity, in view of its wide coverage.
Regards,
Mike

[Lallans]

My personal criterion on the purchase of a tartan book is whether or not said book includes Clan Forrester, which has if you will been regrouping only since about 1980 or so. So far that tartan reference guide space on my shelf has one book on it (and that book does not include the Forrester Hunting tartan, my personal fave).

So, what about this World Tartans thing? Is it Forrestered or not?

EDIT: Well, having read the threads above and now the more general review on Amazon.com ... never mind! I almost hope we WERE left out.

[celt72]

Canuck of NI,
Sorry, but no Forrester tartan.

Despite all of its errors, I find it a fun book to just flip through. I've never seen another book that has so many interesting world tartans in it, such as the Japanese "Katsushika Scottish Country Dancers" tartan and the Israeli "Order of the Holy Sepulchre" tartan!

Also, I've worked for Barnes & Noble since 1996 and just wanted to say that the book was originaly published by Collins and Brown Limited in Great Britain. Usually what we do is buy all of the remaining copies of a book when it goes out of print. We then sell it at a discounted price in our "bargain books" section. Occasionally, when a book like this one sells really well, we will then buy the rights to reprint the book. That is why you'll come across books with our name on them. Anyway, just a little info about the book biz...

[Mike_Oettle]

Hi, Celt – you mention the Katsushika tartan. I was wondering how many more Japanese tartans the book lists, since by my count there are at least 30.
I have been able to track down only two Chinese tartans (aside from the Chinese Scottish), both relevant to Hong Kong, and one Korean. But there are also artefact tartans from Central Asia – two named Takla Makan, and one called Tokharion.
There is an artefact tartan called Bhutan, and one called Kazakhstan.
From what is now called South Asia you have the Baluch Regiment tartan, one called Rajput, one for the Gurkha Rifles and one for Sri Lanka.
In addition there is a tartan registered by a Sikh long resident in Scotland for the use of all Sikhs, and if memory serves a few others for Scots of Indian or Arabian origin.
Counting Arabia as a whole, I have collected nine tartans (in jpg format) from that region.
How many of those does Zaczek list?
Regards,
Mike

[macwilkin]

Hi, Celt – you mention the Katsushika tartan. I was wondering how many more Japanese tartans the book lists, since by my count there are at least 30.
I have been able to track down only two Chinese tartans (aside from the Chinese Scottish), both relevant to Hong Kong, and one Korean. But there are also artefact tartans from Central Asia – two named Takla Makan, and one called Tokharion.
There is an artefact tartan called Bhutan, and one called Kazakhstan.
From what is now called South Asia you have the Baluch Regiment tartan, one called Rajput, one for the Gurkha Rifles and one for Sri Lanka.
In addition there is a tartan registered by a Sikh long resident in Scotland for the use of all Sikhs, and if memory serves a few others for Scots of Indian or Arabian origin.
Counting Arabia as a whole, I have collected nine tartans (in jpg format) from that region.
How many of those does Zaczek list?
Regards,
Mike

The pipers of the 3rd Battalion of India's Sikh Regiment wear the Rattray tartan, in honour of Thomas Rattray, the organizer of Rattray's Sikh Regiment.

Their are two Sikh tartans; one is the Singh tartan, designed by Lord Singh, a Sikh living near Glasgow who is great admirer of Burns; he had his works translated into Punjabi.

T.