1680 Picture questions.

[Henry Mc]

What an interesting thread.

I'm curious how the hose or tights in the original picture were made. This was long before the advent of spandex, nylon, and polyester. What fiber was used? Were they knit or woven? Did they have fine gauge needles back then? Were they durable? Or were they worn by wealthy gents who didn't expose them to hard labor?

Re: the Scottish bagpiper picture. Rather than union pipes I'd guess they are bellows blown pipes similar to these shuttle pipes by John Walsh: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2TsDHJjY7E The video shows mouth blown pipes, but there are varieties of small pipes that can be configured as either mouth blown or bellows blown.

AFAIK trews were made by wrapping the material around the leg and sewing up a single seam at the back. The body part was made separate and connected to the legs. They were usually made of wool and the stretch effect was created by cutting-to-the-bias (I think that's the phrase, not sure exactly what it means, I thought I knew exactly until I had to write it down ).

My guess about the piper is that this is an early painting of a highlander prior to the adoption in the popular mind of tartan and 'Highland' pipes and these are what are today known as Northumberland pipes.

[Henry Mc]

Personally I find the Japanese Kozane Do-Maru armour with a set of greaves, lying in the lower left, very interesting. And just to circle back to the topic at hand, the lower panels of that style of armour gave the samauri warrior a kilted appearance.

"At Sir Neil's feet, lower left, lies a closely observed, though incomplete, suit of Japanese armour. Its presence is a puzzle, for although Japan had been closed to Westerners since the 1620s, John Michael Wright clearly must have had access to such armour. It is of a style called 'Do-Maru', meaning 'round the body'; worn during the period c.1350-1530, it was of a type kept as gifts for eminent people."
http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/...-oneill-t00132

I heard an explanation for this.

Seemingly at the time anything Japanese was shorthand for the irreligious/heathen etc, therefore he was lording it over the heathens in a similar way to the way in medieval art the hero would stand on a dragon/snake or whatever.

[Henry Mc]

Highlanders in 1745

Attachment 10889

Another question that occurs to me regarding the above etching: when did highland dress cease to include the wearing of trews and fileadh mór to-geth-er?

It seemed to be the done thing at one time...

[TheOfficialBren]

Thought this was interesting. A Scottish bagpiper from c.1745, but what are those pipes he's playing, not your usual Bagpipes but a type of union pipes not usually associated with the highlands

Attachment 10888

They could be smallpipes or, as stated prior, Northumberland pipes.

[figheadair]

Another question that occurs to me regarding the above etching: when did highland dress cease to include the wearing of trews and fileadh mór to-geth-er?

It seemed to be the done thing at one time...

One cannot say for certain but it's likely to have been going out of fashion by the time of the '45 and the Disarming Act would have made it impossible. By the time of the Repeal there was such a change in the culture that the combination would have been completely anachronistic.

[Wil]

To me, that isn't a sporran but a long cord of some sort tied about his belt buckle. One could possiably think that he has some type of small pouch at the end, but I do not think so. The man servant, tartan? I once again do not see it.....
You have to keep in mind that at this time embellishments would just be added for "Liberace sake". Just because it put something else in the portrait to look at and make it that much more over the top. I think that is what this cord is about. Not to mention the "Mini Kilt" he is wearing, it looks like he knocked a Tilted Kilt waitress in the head while she was going out to her car after her shift. And took her skirt/kilt