mourning dress

[ThistleDown]

A search of the STA website for the term "mourning" turned up only two: Stewart and Menzies. Menzies looks like it may have been a late adoption.

A search on the "House of Tartan" website tartan finder (which allows you to exclude colors that are not in the tartan you are looking for, as well as search for colors that are in the sett) yielded the following tartans that are all black and white. I have omitted those that are clearly newly created fashion tartans.

1126 Stewart Mourning
1229 MacPhee MacFee or MacIvor
1244 Menzies B/W
1245 Scott
1246 Erskine B/W or Ramsay
1247 Stewart Mourning
1250 Ogilvy B/W
1251 MacFarlane B/W or Lendrum
1252 MacPhee (B&W)
1253 Shepherd
1823 Clergy (Logan)
1824 MacLean Black & White
1825 Scott
1826 Scott (Sir Walter Scott)
1828 MacLeod Black & White

I don't know think we can say that these were all designed as "mourning" tartans, but I doubt that their stark black/ white color palettes are purely chance, either...

Cordially,

David

Have you noticed the repetition, David? 1126 and 1247; 1229 and 1252; 1245, 1825 and 1826. Probably never woven and in reality a relative's honouring through design. And, of course, neither the Clergy nor the Shepherd tartans were/are "clan" tartans.

I don't think we have any knowledge of a "clan" tartan being especially designed and woven in advance of a funeral in the 19C or before. Neither the economies of the day, nor the time between death and funeral service would have permitted the design and the manufacturing of a special tartan. Is that something somebody wishes to discuss?

Having said that, there are a few more things that must be clarified. In the US it is traditional (customary) to wear black to a funeral or memorial service. Men dress in black business suits and women in black dresses with black stockings, black shoes, and black hats or other head-covering in the church and at the grave-side.

That is as it is in England, too.

But that is not as it is in the Highlands.