Anderson 1936 catalogue

[ThistleDown]

Thanks, OC Richard!

It's nice to see a few pictures of men wearing evening ghillie brogues with buckles, as well as the close up of them. Do any of your other catalogues depict this style of shoe? I ask because this is how I have my ghillie brogues set up, but with short laces...

My father wore patent ghillies (although he called them 'evening shoes') with silver buckles and long, long tassels from the lace ends (which he tied strictly centred on his shin six inches up). In the thirties. I still have his buckles, but the evening shoes are, I regret, long gone. In the mid-forties -- or perhaps earlier -- he had 'strappies', as he called them. Patent leather, but with an arch strap and interchangeable buckles: the deco ones he wore in the thirties and a much more ornate silver pair he inherited and which my brother now has. My father was a well-dressed, precise man.

I've thought several times of having dress ghillies made in fine leather, and using his deco buckles once more. Bling.

We are only discussing my generation and my father's, but they include the thirties, the era of the catalogue OCR has so delightfully given us. Tradition is a slow evolution of acceptance and adoption.

The naming of our bits and pieces, however, is a fairly recent thing. A day sporran was generally leather although sometimes fur. Only very, very recently have we separated "Day" into leather, hunting, fur, full-face, etc., and more recently still into things called RobRoys and the like.

By the way, in another post someone asked about "plate". In the Commonwealth "sterling silver" is an alloy of 92.5 percent silver and 7.5 percent other metal -- usually copper. "Plate" is a structure of base metal -- usually brass, but possible copper or other -- with a thin electro-plating of silver. Antique dealers today often differentiate the valuable from the less valuable by referring to the former as Sterling Silver and the latter as Silver Plate. If you go off to your local shop to sell the family silver you may expect a fine return commensurate with its weight because it can simply be melted and refined; to sell the family plate you must expect a somewhat lesser return because its only real value is its design.

[CMcG]

My father wore patent ghillies (although he called them 'evening shoes') with silver buckles and long, long tassels from the lace ends (which he tied strictly centred on his shin six inches up). In the thirties. I still have his buckles, but the evening shoes are, I regret, long gone. In the mid-forties -- or perhaps earlier -- he had 'strappies', as he called them. Patent leather, but with an arch strap and interchangeable buckles: the deco ones he wore in the thirties and a much more ornate silver pair he inherited and which my brother now has. My father was a well-dressed, precise man.

I've thought several times of having dress ghillies made in fine leather, and using his deco buckles once more. Bling.

...

I think it would be wonderful if you could put your father's decorative buckles back into service. IMHO, dress ghillie brogues, in fine leather, look extra smart with buckles They are rather a different beast than the thick rubber soled, workhorse, piper's ghillie brogues, eh?

Here are mine. I have long, tasselled laces for them, but prefer the look of short laces...

[longhuntr74]

I tried multi-quoting, but it doesn't seem to be working right for some reason...so here goes.

To Gary Meakin: I think your question about the kilt pin is a very good one. It almost seems to imply that you would use the pin to pin the apron to the under apron...but to my knowledge that was never the case and can cause damage to the kilt. My initial thought was that maybe some kilts didn't have straps for securing the apron and that you pinned them instead...but then I can't recall any examples that have been presented here where that was the case save, perhaps, for during the 18th century. Every kilt I've seen from the 19th century through present day has straps or buttons.

To David Thorpe: What have you read that would lead you to believe that hunting sporrans were a new invention? I would wager money that the hunting sporran that we see HRH Prince Charles wear all the time dates to the 1940s, if not before. As I understand it, it is a family hand-me-down. The important difference to note (and Artificer has demonstrated this in one of his threads) is that the hunting sporrans of 'yore were constructed differently than they are today. Most (if not all) of the commercially produced hunting sporrans today have hard faces and backings. The old ones like HRH wears have soft bags on them and are quite flexible...so they really are just a much nicer, dressier version of the Rob Roy sporran.

My 2 cents....worth nothing, probably!

[David Thorpe]

...To David Thorpe: What have you read that would lead you to believe that hunting sporrans were a new invention?

There was an earlier discussion on sporrans in which the term "hunting sporran" was discussed at length. I detailed the specific elements of the style there. One poster didn't see it as a style distinct from "leather day sporran" at all. Another opined that the term was no more than a marketing scheme by vendors, which I, evidently wrongly, assumed to be a recent development.

[Jock Scot]

.......... Another opined that the term was no more than a marketing scheme by vendors, which I, evidently wrongly, assumed to be a recent development.

I think you need to remember that in our terms the 1930's is recent!

[David Thorpe]

I think you need to remember that in our terms the 1930's is recent!

Ahh, true that. I think I may be starting to understand that TCHD fashion does indeed change, but at a very conservative, nearly geologic pace. The American perspective is skewed, understandably, by a far shorter historical frame of reference.

[creagdhubh]

I think you need to remember that in our terms the 1930's is recent!

***

[Tobus]

I'm curious about sporran #1. It's sealskin but with an antique brass cantle. I can't find in any of their descriptions where such a sporran would be suitable. They say that sporrans with metal tops are not worn during the day. But evening sporrans should be fur with a silver or plated cantle. Does a brass cantle count as a "plated" cantle?

[artificer]

To David Thorpe: What have you read that would lead you to believe that hunting sporrans were a new invention? I would wager money that the hunting sporran that we see HRH Prince Charles wear all the time dates to the 1940s, if not before. As I understand it, it is a family hand-me-down. The important difference to note (and Artificer has demonstrated this in one of his threads) is that the hunting sporrans of 'yore were constructed differently than they are today. Most (if not all) of the commercially produced hunting sporrans today have hard faces and backings. The old ones like HRH wears have soft bags on them and are quite flexible...so they really are just a much nicer, dressier version of the Rob Roy sporran.

My 2 cents....worth nothing, probably!

If I recall correctly, HRH Prince Charles' hunting sporran is a hand-me-down from either his Grandfather or uncle. My guess is that it predates WW2 by at least a decade, if not more.

I'm curious about sporran #1. It's sealskin but with an antique brass cantle. I can't find in any of their descriptions where such a sporran would be suitable. They say that sporrans with metal tops are not worn during the day. But evening sporrans should be fur with a silver or plated cantle. Does a brass cantle count as a "plated" cantle?

A sporran in the older style like that would travel all the way up to black tie. I don't believe it would work in white tie / court situations though.

edit: Plated refers to silver plating.

Interestingly, the only way to achieve a true mirror finish in brass is to take it and copper plate it, THEN replate in brass. Otherwise the impurities in solid brass cause small swirls/marks that show up if you're buffing to 2000g.
ith:

[RogerWS76]

Thank you for sharing this. It is quite interesting!!!