Brooche or not

[Keagan MacGregor]

HELP!!
I make Jacobite Reenactment anno 1745 1746. My Question is: Were there any Plaidbrooches in use or not. A Member of another group means NO. There had been a button on the shoulder and the plaid was hooked in there with a leatherstrap.
what is right? Where i can find any proves about the excistis of brooches in 1745?

[Tarheel]

From a soldiers view, a captain or chief may have had a broach to indicate rank. A regular Sept (fighter) would not have wanted anything to interfere with his ability to fight. A fighter would not have wanted his valuable broach to be taken if he were captured or killed in battle (maybe left with family members of trusted friends).

I would say no broach on plaid in battle field. The historians of this site may have other thoughts.

[Tarheel]

I remembered reading an old thread on Jacobite clothing. I was able to find it for you. Here is the link.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...te-garb-51320/

I hope this helps you.

[Orvis]

Plaid brooches for male Highlanders did not become fashionable until the 19th century Highland romantic revival. Before that men secured their plaids with buttons and loops on the left shoulder, or with bodkins (long pins made of metal, bone or wood). 18th century Highland women wore metal (brass or silver) brooches (see the portrait of the Hen Wife of Castle Grant) to secure their scarves in the center of their chests. See Fighedear's (sp?) most recent paper on mistoric female dress in Scotland for information on that matter. With regard to male Highland dress, you can see Dunbar's History of Highland Dress or his book The Costume of Scotland. There are other sources as well (such as I.F. Grant's Highland Folkways) which detail this fashion, as well as numerous portraits of Highland gentlemen in the 18th century.

[OC Richard]

I'm no expert, but I've spent years looking at dozens of 17th, 18th, and 19th century paintings of Highlanders, and offhand I can't remember seeing plaid brooches until the 19th century.

I believe that the plaids had two strips of cloth sewn on one corner which were tied at the shoulder onto the jacket's epaulette. I certainly could be wrong!

Here is where one would expect to encounter a brooch, the full dress of a military man who also happens to be an Earl.



This, by the way, is the signed dated original painting owned by the Los Angeles Museum Of Art, as opposed to the oft-reproduced copy, unsigned and undated, owned by the National Museum Of Scotland.

[Luke MacGillie]

Ive yet to see any "Plaid Brooch" that can be documented to wear by men in the 18th Century period. Many years ago someone on another forum claimed to have "Proof" based on a recovered brooch from Culloden, but then never came forward with photos. I would hazard it was a common shirt buckle brooch, not a plaid brooch.

I have a strip of cloth sewn to the outside of my jacket that I pull the plaid thru either from the top of the loop, or the bottom, and then tie with a piece of ribbon sewn to the edge of my plaid.







This is how it looks when you take the plaid in from top to bottom, gives you that "Muffin" look like is show in a number of midcentury woodcuts, most notably in the ones that are used to illustrate Grant's "New Highland Military Discipline"

[Orvis]

Ive yet to see any "Plaid Brooch" that can be documented to wear by men in the 18th Century period. Many years ago someone on another forum claimed to have "Proof" based on a recovered brooch from Culloden, but then never came forward with photos. I would hazard it was a common shirt buckle brooch, not a plaid brooch.

I have a strip of cloth sewn to the outside of my jacket that I pull the plaid thru either from the top of the loop, or the bottom, and then tie with a piece of ribbon sewn to the edge of my plaid.







This is how it looks when you take the plaid in from top to bottom, gives you that "Muffin" look like is show in a number of midcentury woodcuts, most notably in the ones that are used to illustrate Grant's "New Highland Military Discipline"

Very nice, Luke. When I was reenacting in British Army Highland regiments (77th Regt of 1757 and 42nd Regt of 1775) and wore a belted plaid, I had a ribbon loop sewn onto the plaid where I wanted to hook it up and attached this to a button of my left epaulet - worked fine, except that the weight of the plaid always pulled the top of my jacket over to the left-rear. Nowadays, reenacting as a 1745 Jacobite Highlander, I simply fix the plaid to the left shoulder of my jacket (or waistcoat when jacketless) with a brass bodkin. When wearing only a shirt and plaid (as a poor Highlander - usually on hot days), I wrap the left side of the plaid over my left shoulder and use the upper part of the plaid from the right side under my arm and join them chest-high with a metal bodkin. Works fine. I also note from portrait evidence (an from a photo of Culloden coat) that early/mid-18th c. Highland jackets had what I call a "reverse" epaulet of braided cord which had the button on the shoulder/arm seam of the jacket.

[figheadair]

This portrait showing Capt Ranald McKinnon of the 84th Regt has a clear depiction of the loop at the corner of the plaid that would have been used to attach it to a button or the epaulette. There is a similar one shown in the portrait of Lord Loudoun.

[Luke MacGillie]

This portrait showing Capt Ranald McKinnon of the 84th Regt has a clear depiction of the loop at the corner of the plaid that would have been used to attach it to a button or the epaulette. There is a similar one shown in the portrait of Lord Loudoun.

If you have access to the painting of Captain James Gorrie, 87th Regiment of Foot (Keith’s Highlanders), 1760 it shows the ribbon. I am behind a firewall that wont let me access my photobucket at the moment, so will have to post the image tonight after I get home.

[Luke MacGillie]

Here is the photo in question,


I think this may be a class/assignment distinction and perhaps even time period distinction. Both Loudoun and Montgomerie are Field Officers, who wear 2 Epaulettes, Capt MacKinnion is with the Light Infantry Company, who like the Grenadiers allow company grade officers to have 2 Epaulettes.

Capt Gorrie, is not a flank company officer, and from a time before epaulets were in common usage.