MacLeay's Highlanders' belts

[OC Richard]

Yes your "No 90" set is of much higher quality than the ones made in the post-WWII era.

I acquired a used No 90 set around 1980 and it was a far cry from yours.

For example the "pineapples" on yours are 3D while on the modern set they were flat.

Yes we see in Victorian times the sword-belt & dirk-belt sets often using the same buckle, and sometimes keeper, for both the sword-belt and dirk-belt. But the dirk-belt rarely has the tip (chape). I don't know why.

There were also Victorian sets where the dirk-belt plate has the central cavity filled in (thus transforming it from a buckle to a plate). The final stage of evolution was the orientation of the dirk-belt plate changing from Portrait to Landscape.

Here we have two old catalogues showing sword-belt & dirk-belt hardware sets:

c1940 RG Lawrie (top)

c1950 Hugh MacPherson (bottom)

Note that only one dirk-belt plate has the old Portrait orientation, and that was soon changed.



BTW here's the earliest photo I have of 92nd Foot pipers wearing that same crossbelt hardware, 1861.

Note that this is before Glengarries had spread to all regimental pipers, and also before the 92nd adopted their now-familiar white sporrans with two long black tassels. All regiments had either five, or six, short tassels until the 79th adopted a two-tassel sporran for the officers undress uniform around 1850.



So from at least around 1860 up until 1994 the Gordons pipers wore that same crossbelt hardware, no?

No. There are photos like this showing Gordons pipers wearing the keeper and chape from their usual hardware, but with both the crossbelt and waistbelt buckles being from a different set, No 102 in the 1970s catalogue. This photo is from not long after the amalgamation with the 75th foot (after 1881 1/Gordons) and sometimes the pipers of the two battalions wore slightly different kit.

Also this might be the only photo I've seen of that particular sporran that the piper is wearing.