Why is there no attempt to categorize and market these original tartans

[figheadair]

I absolutely love the work Peter is doing. His post and academic approach to tartan is awesome.
What I'd like to know is that since THERE ARE tartan remnants that pre-date the Sobieski frauds and other so-called "Clan submissions", why has no one bothered to possibly organize and present them maybe under a number scheme. I've sen DC's reproduction line....It just looks like weathered tartans proxy modern designs (Excluding the Gordon and maybe a couple more).

I would love to see one of the weavers take this into account and have a tartan selection based on designs that are truly authentic. Whether these tartans were associative, or just fashion, I'd still feel a real link to my heritage if i could wear one of these.

A couple of the weavers have offered attempts at these, most noticeably House of Edgar's Old and Rare range but in every case they fail to get it right. Why? Because they are interested in sales and not historical accuracy. Add to this the fact that most of the weavers have been producing a particular version of a given sett and are not interested in doing another version that would invalidate what they previously sold. Strange logic to me but that's why I do what I do and am not in the industry.

The other thing to bear in mind is that this is specialist/technical stuff and they don’t have the knowledge and in my experience are not prepared to pay those that have. Much the same could be said for a separate database in which the old setts are organised – those that can are not employed by those that want and so it sits on the back burner as a good idea.