New bespoke Margaret Morrison sporran

[OC Richard]

I while back I picked up, fairly cheaply, a ratty-looking old sporran on Ebay that had a promising-looking cantle.

Because it looked like a hand-chased cantle from Frederick Narborough, Birmingham.

Here's how the sporran looked in the Ebay listing. It looked like an aftermarket rabbit skin had been glued on top of the leather:



When the sporran arrived it proved to be even better than that! A hallmarked Sterling Silver cantle by that firm.

My first step was to peel off the rabbit skin. The sporran had originally been lovely soft buff leather, almost certainly with matching buff leather tassels.



Here, sporran 059 shows more or less what this sporran originally would have looked like.



The sporran deserved a new bag, so I sent it to Margaret Morrison, the firm who I think makes the finest sporrans being made today.

I considered staying with buff leather, but decided to go with a Hunting Sporran look.

I asked for brown antique-looking leather. I noticed that MM had some Hunting sporrans with silver accents on the leather tassels and I asked for those.

The result is fantastic.

[Father Bill]

An absolute thing of beauty to be cherished and worn with pride. Well done, Laddie!

[imbrius]

Quite beautiful! Very nice work from MM!

[MacKenzie]

Very nice!

[KennethSime]

Excellent. Looks like a very nice vintage piece.

[OC Richard]

Thanks everyone!

It arrived quickly. Here it is with my ordinary Margaret Morrison hunting sporran.



The leather is supple and has a cool antique look close up. Due to the bag being suspended front and rear the leather doesn't have to be stiff enough to support itself as on most sporrans.

I can't find any stamp on it. The only markings are the Silver Maker's Mark and Date Letter on the cantle (Frederick Narborough 1967)

It will get its debut this weekend at the Las Vegas Highland Games.