The Vestiarium Scoticum was originally published in small edition in 1842 by John Sobieski Stuart and Charles Edward Stuart, English brothers who had ingratiated themselves into Scottish society by claiming to be descendents of Bonnie Prince Charlie. The tartans feature were purportedly taken from a document from 1721 which itself was a copy of an original manuscript dating back to the 16th century. This was presented as historical proof of the connection between tartans and family clans, a link that previously had no record. The brothers claims were later found to be totally untrue – the Stuarts had in fact designed many of the supposedly ancient designs themselves, tartans now claimed as authentic by manufacturers and families alike.

The tartans contained within this book were sourced from digital versions uploaded to the Vestiarium Scoticum Wikipedia page in 2007 by someone calling themselves Celtus. At the time of printing Celtus in no longer active on Wikimedia Commons (the branch of Wikipedia that handles media files) and as such is considered a ‘retired editor’.

Printed on a Risograph, the edition supplements Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Key (Black) – the subtractive process colors typically used in printing – with Red, Green, and Blue, the components of the additive color model, the partitive mixing of the computer screen and the dominant colors of the tartans herein.