File:Tartan Anderson.jpg

English: The distinctive and elaborate Anderson tartan can be found in many minor variations dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. The Highland Society of London began to collect specimens of tartans in 1815, but the Anderson sample appears to have been added at a later date, there being no reference to its place in the collection in early records. Anderson is recognised as a name in more than one of the Highland Clans including Clan Ross and Clan Donald. James D Scarlett MBE noted in his 1975 book 'The Tartans of the Scottish Clans': The origin of this tartan is unknown, but the type of pattern suggests that it had its basis in one of the 'fancy' types of design that were becoming popular in the few years immediately preceding the great 'tartan explosion' that was touched off by the 1822 royal visit to Edinburgh. There was a ready sale for such patterns in the days when they could be worn for reasons of preference, and several of them, the Anderson among them, passed to posterity as clan tartans.'