Robertson 1819

[RodF]

Awesome choice...love those colors - made may dau's kiddie kilt out of tartan, not of that same hue, but same Robertson colors. Am narrowing in on Robertson Hunting myself...but, boy that will will look amazing.

[figheadair]

Elliots weave a nice cloth as this piece shows but I'm not sure what makes it Robertson 1819?

Wilsons' 1819 Key Pattern Book included four counts for the Robertson tartan, one of which was for the 600 Reed, 19 inches wide, a setting that indicates the firm was weaving this tartan in the late 18th century. This graphic shows the difference in size between the largest (600 Reed, 19 inches wide) and smallest (24 Reed, 25 inches wide) of the 1819 KPB settings.



The one thing that all four of the 1819 counts has in common are the colours, in each case purple is specified rather than blue. Wilsons' purple was a dark navy with a reddish hue as opposed to a pure indigo blue. By c1830-40 they had generally replaced their purple shade in favour of blue which was a mid-navy shade. Notwithstanding the Robertson being listed amongst Wilsons' Key Patterns I cannot recall having seen a surviving specimen of the period. They were obviously weaving the version with the white line in around the same time and although not in the 1819 KPB, they are a number of survivng specimens such as this one which uses their purple.



As an aside, Wilsons said of the tartan that it was This is the real Clan Donnachy or Robertson of Strouans Tartan, an interesting statement given that the Cockburn Collection c1810 only includes the Robertson in Kindeace (Hunting) and neither were included in the Highland Society of London's Collection formed 1816-21.