Tell newbie about kilt pins

[OC Richard]

The background about kilt pins is that they seem to appear in the Victorian period, but weren't all that popular then.

About military kilt pins, from 1808 there were only five kilted Scottish Highland regiments, and only one, the 92nd Foot (Gordon Highlanders) wore kilt pins. They were a plain safety pin.

About Victorian civilian kilt pins, as best I can tell they were part of the general Victorian fad for Clan Crest accessories.

Victorian kilt pins were generally round, and more or less were miniature cap-badges, the Clan Crest surrounded by the strap & buckle. Plain safety pins were also seen.

As best I can tell it was around the 1920s or 1930s when the common modern traditional kilt pins became popular, so popular that some expressed the opinion that they were "required" for proper dress (an opinion which would have baffled the Victorians).

These 20th century kilt pins had a vertical axis and were usually in the shape of swords (often with targe) or less often other weaponry such as axes and dirks.

It's almost as if when men stopped wearing swords at their sides they began wearing them in the form of kilt pins, as vestiges of a former age.

Then in the 1970s, after a century of obscurity, Clan Crest do-dads came roaring back, including Clan Crest kilt pins. Now the strap & buckle was placed over a sword, just as the targe used to be.

Today kilt pins are in a strange place here in the USA. There was a "show us your kilt pins" thread here and very few of the things people were wearing on their kilts were designed and made to be kilt pins. Rather, any small object a person might own was attached to their kilts.

Personally I rarely wear a kilt pin. It's an unnecessary do-dad IMHO and when I'm getting dressed for a piping gig there are enough bits to a Highland outfit at minimum! The last thing I want to do is add superfluous impedimenta.

Time for pretty pictures!

A Gordon Highlander wearing a plain silver safety pin; it appears to have a ball at bottom, a style often seen. (There's another style with a silver rod with silver balls screwed onto each end.)



The man on the left wearing matching Clan Crest cap badge, brooch, and kilt pin



This Fraser Ross catalogue (1930s IIRC) only shows the plain pin and the grouse-claw styles



The Anderson 1936 catalogue only offers pins, in this case with silver ball and a tiny stone, and a penannular brooch style



Here in 1960 we see our familiar styles. A major maker was Robert Allison (established 1938)



Here in a 1970s catalogue we can see a fairly full range of the styles made by Robert Allison and other makers. Robert Allison was in business until 1982.

Note (lower left) the return of the Clan Crest kilt pin! They were offered by two new makers, Art Pewter Silver (est. 1968) and Carrick (est. 1971) who made Clan Crest cap badges, kilt pins, key rings, sginean, etc. It was these firms who powered the 1970s Clan Crest fad which is still with us to some extent.