Piece of the month - What do you see

[figheadair]

Is it by any chance an early C18th barred blanket?

Regards

Chas

Every chance - top marks Chas. Here's the detail - http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/An_...air_Castle.pdf

[Chas]

Every chance - top marks Chas. Here's the detail - http://www.scottishtartans.co.uk/An_...air_Castle.pdf

I cannot claim any genius or insightful knowledge. But I do try and read the papers you post here. I thought that you were either giving us all a clue or a test.

So I won't say that I was cheating, just that you helped me along the way.

Regards

Chas

[tripleblessed]

Wow! Everybody loves a mystery, and a good sleuth to solve it. I had
never heard the term before. This is why I love this forum. Always new
knowledge.

[Morris at Heathfield]

I was looking at Mackintosh tartans for some reason and came across a very similar tartan: "MacIntosh Blanket" STWR #2020.

Scottish Register of Tartans
Scottish Tartans World Register

Apart from the border, which can't be accounted for in a conventional thread count, there are three differences I see:

1) The red/pink in the tartan sample here appears to be all one shade, whereas the registry images have salmon pink for the most part, but also some darker red stripes.

2) The red checks in the tartan sample are evenly spaced, whereas in the registry images the white checks between them alternate in size.

3) There is a narrow dark stripe on the "inside" of the green stripes on the tartan sample, but not in the registry images.

[figheadair]

I was looking at Mackintosh tartans for some reason and came across a very similar tartan: "MacIntosh Blanket" SWTR #2020.

Scottish Register of Tartans
Scottish Tartans World Register

Apart from the border, which can't be accounted for in a conventional thread count, there are three differences I see:

1) The red/pink in the tartan sample here appears to be all one shade, whereas the registry images have salmon pink for the most part, but also some darker red stripes.

2) The red checks in the tartan sample are evenly spaced, whereas in the registry images the white checks between them alternate in size.

3) There is a narrow dark stripe on the "inside" of the green stripes on the tartan sample, but not in the registry images.

This is an interesting one which I know from an entry in the old STS archives from which the data was later incorporated into the STR and SWTR.

There's something about this sett, which is described as very complex, that doesn't ring true. Compare it with the Wilsons' strip in my paper.

The problem is that there are no details of who provided the original information and where the item is now. It's not a complex design unless one factors in the possibility of a barred selvedge pattern, which I would expect, and which would certainly throw off someone unfamiliar with the technique. I also wonder if in fact there were two shades of red and green or one of each.

Finally, There is also no explanation of why it should be called MacKintosh and I have to question whether it was woven by the gentleman's G grandmother or whether that is merely a family tradition. There are a lot of similar ones that don't stand up to scrutiny, the most common of which is that something was worn by Pr Ch Ed.

I would classify this as an Unnamed C18th Blanket Pattern. I must try and track down the original but I suspect that that might prove difficult as the STS info is almost certainly from the 1970s.

[figheadair]

Got a nice one for January