Paul Henry Kilts

The original sample in the 1750 sample book

The 115 Tartan

 There are thousands of named tartans, thousands  more woven  without a name, and quite possibly just as many to be discovered in old boxes and trunks, and every now and again old sample books surprise with a random cutting which captures the imagination.

Back in  the mid 1700’s a rather colourful character from Manchester  ended up fighting for the Jacobites and the Young Pretender, and after a series of events including jail and  escaping through a hole in the wall, fleeing  to  Flanders and onwards to France, supporting  Bonnie Prince Charlie  and ending  up acting as a manufacturers agent, a spy, a chemist, a government trade advisor, and  subsequently  setting up textile mills in Rouen, and ultimately elevated to the French Aristocracy and even rubbing shoulders with Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin: in short  the stuff of Hollywood epics, and much more involved than this brief excerpt. At some point during all these adventures John Holker managed several thriving cotton mills and left at least one excellent  bound book of working samples  in the 1750’s .

One of these swatches was of a very unusual 9 colour tartan in strong and wonderful colours , incidentally all naturally dyed, which caught my attention and fostered a desire to see it woven once again.

Very few commercial weavers are able, or even prepared to weave a 9 colour design, and then the challenge was to find suitable colours of yarn that will work well together. With any historic re weaving there are always compromises, many things can’t be exactly replicated  over 250 years later but a sense of the character and feeling is important to catch.

I am happy to offer  this tartan, after over a year of sample threads and test prints - hopefully capturing the spirit of the original. It's seldom possible to achieve a perfect match as 250 years later many things have changed, but I hope that it is a sympathetic  rendering.

With any existing tartan it's hard to create a new meaningful name, but it was listed as 115 in the pattern book, so I'm going to continue with that and offer it as The 115 tartan.

My especial  thanks to Peter MacDonald for first showing it and for working on the thread count

This will be  a rather special and exclusive tartan, perfect for a taste of the past and the intrigue of the spy and adventurerer, I'm seeking interest at the moment before commissioning the weave, so please use the contact form below to let me know if you would like to have some of this great tartan

  Woven in Scotland, single width  approx 30”/80 cm in heavyweight 16oz  pure new wool with a good true selvedge which is a little unusual and highly sought after by aficionados. Once the order is placed there is normally about a 12 week  wait for the cloth to be woven, please be patient, this is a very special tartan, for  kilts a deposit is taken and the balance is due on completion, other items are paid proforma, once the items are ready for despatch a second invoice will be raised for postage as this varies considerably around the world

Currently out of stock. but please contact me for future availabilty

however  there might be some small items in stock