First use of kilt pins

[freep]

Is there any documentation or does anyone know when kilt pins first came into use?

[The Wizard of BC]

It was on Tuesday ---- about 4:30.



Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[freep]

It was on Tuesday ---- about 4:30.



Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Aye. I know what you mean. . .

I was hoping for which Tuesday.

[Dughlas mor]

The Wiki entry probably says as much as is known. They definitely go back to Victorian times.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilt_pin

[OC Richard]

In The Highlanders Of Scotland, which includes 56 portraits of kilted men painted in the 1860s, it can be seen that at that time kilt pins were uncommon, and when they were worn they didn't look like the sorts of kilt pins which have come down to us from the early 20th century (the familiar swords, dirks, axes, etc).

Of the 56, 34 portraits show the area where a kilt pin would be.

27 of the 34 have the kilt plain there, without kilt pin or ribbons.

Only 6 have kilt pins. 4 of the 6 are circular, either plain or bearing a clan crest.

One is a plain open oval, one is a complex design.

One kilt has bows/rosettes/ribbons.

I can't recall seeing any kilt pins in 18th century portraits.

So were I doing a historical costume I wouldn't use a kilt pin.

[freep]

Thank you, that's exactly what I was after.

I suspected it was Victorian at the earliest and probably later.

I've none. I'm not really going for authenticity, just trying not to mix and match too much. Probably all for naught as regardless of what kilt I wear this weekend I'll have on my coisiche monaidh ghillie brogues (hiking boots--my feet ain't what they used to be and they're the only shoes I've got I can last all day in.)

I was thinking I might just use a cap badge if I felt the need. Maybe not.

[The Wizard of BC]

As the kilt pin is Bling, or the equivalent to a lady wearing a brooch, going without one should cause no heartache.

And don't worry about what type of pin. It is quite common for kilt guys to go to flea markets and scrounge around in the jewelry boxes looking for new and unique kilt pins. I have a different one on each kilt. Sometimes I put them on and sometimes not.

[OC Richard]

I was thinking I might just use a cap badge if I felt the need.

Yes exactly, some of the Victorian kilt pins seen in The Highlanders Of Scotland look just like the cap badges these gents are wearing- strap & buckle circle with clan crest in the middle.

BTW many of the do-dads we think of as necessary today weren't then. In THOS one sees bonnets worn with no badges, kilts with no kilt pins, socks with no sginean or flashes. Contrary to expectations, the Victorian Highland costume was often the epitome of plain-ness, with no metal whatsoever. The jackets worn are often just the plain ordinary jackets of the period.

Note what we don't see. The gent on the right has no cap badge, or even cockade. Neither gent has a kilt pin, or sgian, or flashes. The jackets are plain, with ordinary buttons. The shoes likewise are plain ordinary shoes. Note that the sporrans have no metal whatsoever: plain leather stitched cantles, tassels in leather cones.



And a photo from the same period showing the same sort of thing, in case anyone questions the accuracy of the MacLeay portraits



Here's one of the very few kilt pins seen in THOS, the gent on the left, which appears to be the same as his cap badge.



This wearing of a cap badge as a kilt pin is alive and well in Scotland, with the Boghall & Bathgate Pipe Band (looks like the piper on the far right misplaced hers)

[freep]

Very interesting!

I like the diversity in style. I was surprised by the long jacket in the photo.

Thanks

[The Q]

What's noticeable in the painting while the gentleman wearing a kilt pin is that the is fully dressed up, silver buckled shoes, sword, baldric, belt, plaid with huge silver broach.
Whereas the other gentleman appears to be in a less formal style of dress. Both against an outside background when they were probably posed indoors.
Would the be a early case of 1 kilt 10 looks?
To me it would indicate that klt pins were thought of as formal dress items only.