Pipers' belt hardware, then and now

[OC Richard]

As many of you know I love buckles and sporrans etc, and tend to collect sets of "piper's" belt hardware, crossbelt and waistbelt hardware.

So guess what came in the post today? The crossbelt set at right:



For comparison it's shown with a modern version. The vintage set is solid nickel (German Silver) while the modern set is chrome plated.

The waistbelt buckle shown with the modern set is the one intended to be worn with it, en suite. The waistbelt buckle shown with the vintage set is an old one I picked up on Ebay a while back, and appears to be a very close match. In Victorian and Edwardian times it was fairly common for waistbelt buckles to be made "portrait" while nowadays they're nearly always "landscape".

This pattern has been around for over 100 years and remains the most commonly seen "pipers'" belt set pattern.

Here you can see it worn by the Pipe Major of The Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders



Here is this crossbelt and waistbelt set in the widely-used photo pamphlet of sporran styles used by a large number of different Scottish sporranmakers for decades.

As you can see it is called #102. The other common pattern, #355, is rectilinear.

[Downunder Kilt]

A great bit of kit you have picked up there OC, congratulations

[Altenberg Bagpiper]

Good find Richard. Like a lot of things now days the quality items are mainly from the past. I have a nice set of crossbelt hardware I got from Gavin Stoddart that was used by the Royal Highland Fusiliers for one of their tours in the late 1960s. It is made of silver and is plain. I also have a nice set made in plain brass for one of my uniforms.

[OC Richard]

Thanks! A problem with me, and crossbelts, is that I'm 6'4" and weigh 230 pounds, and they're always too small.

A while back I got a brand new crossbelt (sans hardware) made extra long for me, and when I get a chance I'll mount these buckles on it.

I'll also add the badges worn by the Black Watch, because this exact pattern is worn by the Pipe Major of that regiment (as well as by the Argylls).

[artificer]

Gorgeous new kit, Richard!
Can't wait to see your new crossbelts all put together.

One small correction though- "German Silver" is actually not solid nickel, but an alloy of copper and nickel, frequently with a moderate percentage of zinc added.


ith:

[OC Richard]

I've always puzzled at that "German silver" thing. That's the way the mounts on old pipes were described. I have a c1900 set of Lawrie pipes and that's what the mounts are. They look more or less like Sterling Silver when polished up, but have a yellowish patina when left unpolished. The mounts are solid (not plated).

For example here's a portion of the Peter Henderson 1888 catalogue

1. The Great Highland or Military Bagpipe, made of Ebony or Cocoa wood, full mounted with Ivory
2. do. do. half mounted with Ivory and Silver
3. do. do. full mounted with Silver
4. do. do. full mounted with German Silver
5. do. do. half mounted with Ivory and German Silver

In their 1900 price list "German Silver" was changed to "Nickel Silver" but only the wording changed... I've seen many of these old pipes from various years by various makers and the metal is always the same. They continued to use the term "nickel silver" up through the 1960s.

The Glen catalogues from the 1860s and 1870s likewise use the term "German Silver".

The old hardware, buckles, sporran cantles, and brooches, are always made of the same stuff, whatever it should be called; cast, solid, heavy, not plated.

(NB these old catalogues have all the nouns capitalized.)

[artificer]

The "German" comes from German metallurgist EA Geitner who discovered a way to industrialize the production of the alloy- which was based on an ancient Chinese alloy called (translated) "White Copper".
the "Silver" comes from it's colour rather than any elemental content.

It has quite an interesting history and number of applications.

ith:

[OC Richard]

Thanks for that link, it explains the entire thing. So I see that "German Silver" and "nickel silver" are indeed the same thing.

Funny they mention the term "alpacca". I bought some Bolivian musical instruments from a Bolivian guy who had a booth at the NAMM show; he is a major manufacturer and seller of traditional instruments in Cochabamba. When I read through his catalogue I couldn't help but notice how poorly it had been translated into English, and I took the catalogue home and wrote out good idiomatic English for him to use in future editions. Whoever had done the translating for him down in Cochabamba didn't know the English words for any of the elements or materials of musical instruments, and used either incorrect English terms, or left the Spanish terms intact. One of these was "alpaca" which was used to describe the material the frets on his guitars and charangos were made of.

When I met him the next day I tried to ask him about "alpaca" and all he was able to do was to show me one of his charangos and point to the frets, which appeared to be made of nickel or some such. I couldn't understand why the frets would be called the same thing as an animal. In any case, I just used the word "nickel" in my translation.

[OC Richard]

Yes I noticed that interesting badge on his crossbelt. As you point out the A&SH PM wears a boar's head with scroll above, with Roman numerals below.

Note too that Motherwell is wearing the new style waistbelt buckle which is horizontal.

Both photos show the same crossbelt buckle, keeper, and tip.