Tartan question, hunting and dress

[G_W]

So as I understand it, a hunting variation and a dress variation of a tartan are actually different tartans based on them using different colors. However, a weathered or ancient, variation would be the same tartan because the colors are the same, just the shade has changed?

[JerseyLawyer]

Right. Hunting and dress are totally different setts. Ancient, Weathered, Muted, Reproduction, etc., are different tones of the same basic color palette. Except for Ancient, which sometimes is a different tartan, depending on the tartan and mill.

All clear now?

[azwildcat96]

Interesting question...I know with the Morrison tartans, there are reds (modern, ancient and weathered) and greens (modern, ancient, and weathered). I had someone try to sell me a Morrison Hunting tartan, which was in fact really doesn't exist, and was just a Morrison green weathered. So I'm not sure if some vendors choose to use the weathered and hunting (or green variations and hunting) as interchangable descriptions. I'm interested in what the experts have to say here.

[Tobus]

So I'm not sure if some vendors choose to use the weathered and hunting (or green variations and hunting) as interchangable descriptions.

They might, but they would be using the terms incorrectly.

"Dress" and "hunting" are usually specific tartan pattern variations with a different sett from the original, where "ancient", "reproduction", "modern", "muted" and "weathered" are all just color variations of the proper original clan tartan.

There may be some examples out there of hunting tartans that have the exact same sett as the original clan tartan, but in different shades or colors. But that still wouldn't make them necessarily interchangeable with the weathered variations.

[Mike_Oettle]

The concept of a hunting tartan is that one could wear it out in the forest or the moor while hunting without disturbing the prey.
They are generally green, but there does not have to be any correspondence between the hunting sett and the family or clan sett.
Gayre of Gayre and Nigg produced a “hunting” design that was a whole lot brighter than his “clan” tartan, which rather lampooned the whole concept. But then he was chief of a self-invented clan, which in itself can be seen as a lampoon.
Regards,
Mike

[Ryan Ross]

There may be some examples out there of hunting tartans that have the exact same sett as the original clan tartan, but in different shades or colors.

Indeed!

Take Wallace:

http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tar....aspx?ref=4482

And Wallace Hunting:

http://www.tartanregister.gov.uk/tar....aspx?ref=4486

Also, here's a great article on the topic:

http://albanach.org/colors.html

[Tartan Tess]

My family hunting tartan must have been hunting in the cartoons it is such a bright lime green.

[Mike_Oettle]

Tartan Tess wrote: “My family hunting tartan must have been hunting in the cartoons it is such a bright lime green.”

Imagine going hunting in that number!

[Cygnus]

My family hunting tartan must have been hunting in the cartoons it is such a bright lime green.

Perhaps it's the Scottish forerunner of the "hunters orange" that is used today.

[Morris at Heathfield]

Interesting question...I know with the Morrison tartans, there are reds (modern, ancient and weathered) and greens (modern, ancient, and weathered). I had someone try to sell me a Morrison Hunting tartan, which was in fact really doesn't exist, and was just a Morrison green weathered. So I'm not sure if some vendors choose to use the weathered and hunting (or green variations and hunting) as interchangable descriptions. I'm interested in what the experts have to say here.

There are two Morrison tartans (three, if you count the red one as two variations), as you noted, but there is no standard terminology for distinguishing them. The Scottish Tartans Authority refers to them as "Morrison" and "Morrison Society". Lochcarron refers to them as "Morrison Red" and "Morrison Green". And both Strathmore and the House of Edgar refer to them as "Morrison Red" and "Morrison Hunting".

In general, the term "hunting tartan" is used to refer to dark tartans that were designed for clans that already had bright clan tartans in use, but it is sometimes applied retroactively to dark tartans that were not originally designed as hunting tartans. The Macdonald of the Isles tartan is another such tartan that is sometimes referred to as a hunting tartan. Conversely, red (or yellow) clan tartans are sometimes referred to as "dress tartans" even when, in most cases, they weren't designed as such.