Clan crest bonnet badges

[OC Richard]

This topic has come up on another thread and I thought it might deserve its own.

I'm admittedly a creature of the period I began wearing Highland Dress- the 1970s- and at that time it seemed clear that Clan Crest bonnet badges came in two sizes, one intended for the Glengarry, one for the Balmoral.

Here, made in the 1980s by Carrick Jewellery Scotland



The larger Glengarry badge is 2 inches or 52mm in diameter, the smaller Balmoral badge is 1 5/8 inches or 41mm in diameter.

Now I say "intended" but in fact I never talked to anybody at Carrick or any other Scottish jewellery firm about it, it's merely my inference from seeing the standard practice at that time.

In the 1980s I worked at a Highland Outfitter who was a Carrick stockist and we carried, as I recall, at least four sizes of Clan Crest badges

1) the 52mm worn on Glengarries
2) the 41mm worn on Balmorals
3) a smaller one, too small for a bonnet, evidently for feminine and/or "Saxon" wear
4) a tiny one used as a lapel or tie pin.

Here are the first three sizes listed on their original Carrick display cards (the cards are all the same size)







Carrick also had pendants (two styles) and car badges and these distinctive kilt pins



Here are the two sizes of bonnet badges worn on my bonnets (both Mackies from the 1980s)



It just makes sense, artistic sense, for the size of things to correspond to their format. So the size of a portrait that you use on a freeway sign is going to be different than the size of a portrait that you use on a coin. (Though I'm surprised how often the people who design things don't seem to be aware of this principle.)

So the bigger badge simply fits the format of the Glengarry best. That size has been around at least since the mid-19th century when a craze for Clan Crest badges was at its height



and continues to be worn



And here are the smaller Balmoral badges being worn (one fellow does have a larger one)



There have always been people who wear the small badge on the Glengarry and visa versa, probably a matter of "this is the badge I have and it's going on my new hat".

But to my eye a small badge looks a bit lost at sea on a Glengarry and a big badge looks ungainly on a Balmoral.