gravity-defying tassels

[OC Richard]

I pondered for a bit where to put this, but since it's about how Highland Dress is depicted by the media and not anything concerning actual Highland Dress as it really exists I thought it should be here. (If it should be in the military section please move it.)

Anyhow I've mentioned before the poor-quality illustrations in a number of books showing Highland Dress.

Some of the worst are those seen in some Osprey publications. In a number of their books the illustrators evidently have never seen the things they're illustrating "in the flesh" and don't understand how they're constructed. Sometimes I wonder if they've even seen photographs of the things.

Some of the worst are in the book The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders (illustrated by Michael Roffe).

This isn't the worst illustration in the book. At least here the dicing is correct (several show strange red/white/pink dicing).

But consistently throughout the book he shows the tassels of the sporrans splaying out from a central point somehow defying gravity.



I immediately thought of those illustrations when just now I came across this c1890 print on Ebay.



These are shooting off to the sides even more, and also the flashes.

When you walk, by the way, the six tassels all swing together, one way then the other. And when you stand still all six tassels hang straight down. The origin-points of the tassels are placed so that the tassels are evenly spaced out, they're not all bunched together in the middle as on the Roffe illustration at top.

Here's a photo showing the actual sporrans, the tassels all swinging as one

[Tarheel]

For every action there is an equal reaction. My sporran (just two tassels with heavy weighted cones) will move back and forth in unison as I walk. I can imagine how the outside tassels (of a six tasseled military sporran) would move outward because there is nothing there to prevent the swing in that direction.

I feel the ERG to ponder dynamics. Mikilt's worst pun for this moment.

[Father Bill]

Moving to "Military Heritage" section with a one week re-direct. (This forum section is exempt from the restriction to the weapons section as laid out in Rule #11 but must conform to the guidelines set out in the weapons section.)