Clan bonnet badge makers & sizes

[OC Richard]

A recent curious purchase made me take a look at the various Clan Crest bonnet badges which I'm seeing for sale currently. Some are by still-current makers, some are "new old stock".

The modern Clan crest craze seemed to have been kicked off by Art Pewter Silver (established 1968). They made these elegant smallish (40mm across) bonnet badges, and put Clan crests on sginean, buckles, cufflinks, kilt pins, etc.



They were shortly followed by Carrick Jewellery (established 1971) who made bonnet badges in two sizes (40mm and 50mm across) as well as a tiny lapel-pin size, kilt pins, etc.



In the 1980s I worked at a Highland Outfitter that sold these Carrick things and we sold the 50mm badge as a Glengarry badge and the 40mm badge as a Balmoral badge. Here are the two Carrick sizes on these bonnets to show how the proportion of each type of badge seems right for the type of bonnet.



Recently I saw this line of badges by a firm new to me and I bought one. The card says Images Of Scotland. Googling didn't come up with anything that seemed to be connected to badge-making, except one reference that suggested that Images Of Scotland might be owned by St Kilda Group.



Well Lo And Behold when the new badge was compared to a vintage Carrick large (50mm) badge it was obvious that they had come from the same moulds. Note that the Images Of Scotland badge appears to be pewter while the Carrick badge appears to be Rhodium plated.



I had read back around 2005 that Carrick Jewellery had been obtained by Gaelic Themes. However Gaelic Themes were making their own unique line of Clan crest bonnet badges aimed at the Pipe Band market. They're slightly smaller (47mm across) than the Carrick large badge. The Gaelic Themes designs strike me as a bit modernist.



Here's a selection of bonnet badges for comparison.

Upper row L-R: Carrick large, Images Of Scotland, Gaelic Themes.
Lower row L-R: Carrick medium, Art Pewter Silver.



Seeing all of these together makes clear the rather heavy-handed Gaelic Themes style.