Clan Crest Badge Affixed to a Day Sporran..

[OC Richard]

Taking the long view, over a couple hundred years of Highland Dress, in the 18th and early 19th centuries you didn't seen these "Clan crest badges" worn.

Then around the mid-19th century they suddenly became something of a fad.

You'll see gents' outfits with these crests worn on the bonnet, sporran top, kilt pin, plaid brooch, sgian, dirk, and who knows what all.

Here's the most excessive outfit I can find in The Highlanders Of Scotland (1860s). With the fellow on the left, note the Clan crest strap & buckle kilt pin, plaid brooch, and bonnet badge, and the crest without buckle & strap on the sporran cantle. I'd wager the crest appears on his dirk too.



But in the nature of fashion this crest-craze waned and by the early 20th century you'll see them confined mostly to bonnets.

Wearing crests on nearly everything came roaring back in the late 20th century and is still with us for better or for worse.

Here's a current example, a Clan crest set offered by Ian Grant of Edinburgh. There are even tiny crests on the sporran chain!



Personally I'm not a fan.

A note about kilt pins: You'll see above in The Highlanders Of Scotland a round Clan crest strap & buckle badge worn as a kilt pin. Seems like that was the most common sort of kilt pin then. Evidently the sword-type kilt pins got popular later.

Here's a Grade One pipe band, Boghall & Bathgate, who wear fullsize Clan crest cap badges on their kilts. I dislike kilt pins generally and I certainly wouldn't want to wear a large heavy cap badge on my kilt. Whether they're aware of it or not, they're a throwback to the style of the mid-19th century.



About wearing badges on leather Day sporrans, in the Army the badge is worn on the body of leather sporrans, not the flap:



However there's a civilian pipe band, Saint Lawrence O Toole, who had large ornate badges made up which they wear both on their Glengarries and on their sporrans. As you see they've affixed the badges to the flaps rather than the body of the sporran.



NB Kenneth MacLeay's amazing eye for detail is on display in the painting above. Note the dirk-belt and cross-belt of the guy on the left: you can see there was some sort of varnish on the leather which has mostly come off over the years. I've seen a number of very old belts just like that.