The soft, earthen colours are the unmistakable sign of authentic vegetable dyes: colours you will not find in modern Scottish tartans. We’ve built up a unique collection of these traditional Welsh blankets, the last remaining witness to a woollen industry that commercially was no match for the giant mills of Yorkshire and Lancashire and was largely extinct in Wales by the end of World War 2. Do not expect downy sofness here: to keep the incessant rain at bay, indigious welsh sheep have long guard hairs in their wool. The resulting: ‘kemp hair’ fleeces are rough, but if finished correctly in the ‘Pandy’ i.e. boiled, steamed and pressed, the best of them produced blankets of exceptional warmth and wear resistance, akin to a fine felt. Some in our collection date back to 1850; the colours of these are warm yellows and ochres, becoming more vivid with the arrival of aniline dyes.