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Clans Originaux
or
The Great
Irish Tartan Mystery!
List of woven tartan samples in Clans Originaux.
Floating around the tartan world for many decades have
been references to a volume called Clans Originaux. 'Published'
in Paris in 1880 by J. Claude Fres. & Cie. The references have
always been very tantalising to researchers, all the more so because only one
copy of this 'publication' seemed to have survived - owned by Pendleton
Woolen Mills of Portland, Oregon.
Clans
Originaux was particularly intriguing because it was frequently quoted
as the source of a clutch of Irish family tartans. The late Bill
Johnston of TECA- the Tartan Educational & Cultural
Association, our sister organisation in the US - had reportedly transcribed some
of these tartans in 1977 on a visit to Pendleton Woolen Mill. Since the
Originaux source was so often quoted, it was assumed that he had found the
tartans there, but no research notes have ever come to light.
 Over the years, many
enquiries about these 'Irish tartans' seem to have been made to
Pendleton who understandably, didn't have the time or resources to answer such
queries. So the focus of attention remained on the mysterious Clans
Originaux. In an attempt to locate another copy of the publication, we
at the Scottish Tartans Authority initiated a search of the
British Library, the Bibliotheque in Paris, the national library in Dublin and
the Library of Congress in the USA. Amazingly each drew a blank!
Despite
Pendleton's reported reluctance to become involved in correspondence on the
matter we contacted the Pendleton President C.M.Bishop III who very
kindly responded by passing the query on to one of his staff. From then on and
as time allowed MH (we keep the name quiet so that they don't get
pestered!) passed graphics to us which began to slowly unravel the
conundrum.
First and foremost, the Contents pages displayed a singular
lack of any of the Irish tartans whose provenance had for so many years been
vested in Clans Originaux. We then turned our attention to a
companion volume called Scotch Tartans also published by J
Claude in 1880 - no Irish tartans there either. One blinding flash of clarity
appeared during this process in the course of a discussion with colleague
Blair Urquhart of The House of Tartan: Clans Originaux
was not a publication in the conventional sense of the word but was merely a
book of tartan samples - what we call a swatch book. This explained the nil
return from four national libraries . . . how could we have been so
stupid????
Finally, MH very kindly put together two
photographic CDs of the contents of both volumes which proved the
point conclusively and we are now working our way through 185 tartans and
checking them against our master database the International Tartan
Index.
One mystery solved . . . . . but another
created! Where have  these Irish tartans come
from? Watch this space!!!
List of woven tartan samples in Clans Originaux.
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Why did J Claude produce this swatch book and its sister
companion SCOTCH TARTANS? Was the company a wholesaler or a
retailer? Were the tartans imported from Britain or were they being woven in
France or Ireland? If anyone can answer any of these questions or has a yen to
undertake some research then we would be delighted.
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Scottish Tartans Authority
Muthill Road, Crieff. PH7 4HQ. Scotland
Tel: +44 (0)1764 655444 Fax: +44 (0)1764 654242 Local rate calls from UK 0845 430 1822
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