very nice sporran on Ebay

[OC Richard]

This is right up my alley! A wonderful vintage cantle on an Icelandic Sheepskin body

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Icelandic-Sh...item461bfc394b

I would buy it except I'm already wearing something similar.

I'm pretty sure that cantle is the same one that sold recently on Ebay. It's an old Gordon Highlanders pipers' sporran cantle, rather rare. I would have preferred to have seen it mounted on a horsehair sporran, with two black tassels, in other words restored to its original context. Of course it's easy to switch out cantles: I use my vintage cantle both on a goathair body and on a long black horsehair body for my military-style kit.

Here's the vintage Gordon Highlanders pipers' sporran cantle, mounted now on that sheepskin body (and with the rather odd US Southwestern style belt)



Here's the old Gordon Highlanders sporran worn by a piper of The Highlanders (not the Queens Own Highlanders, as one might think)

[artificer]

Nice cantle. The seller is our "Bonsai" chappie with a new name, btw!

ith:

[KevinKeith]

I thought that was Bonsai! You know, he turns out some really good work and is certainly not afraid to push the envelope.
Then again, he comes up with this stuff...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Full-Mask-Ja...p2056016.l4276

Ouch!

[Tim Little]

Wow; gorgeous! And unfortunately completely unjustifiable for me. :-(

[IrishSean]

This is a very nice sporran, but not as nice are yours Richard.

[PiperOfThePlains]

Neat! I might have to snatch it. I have two of Mr. "Bonsai's" sporrans; an Icelandic sheepskin and a full mask Egyptian jackal, of course, complete with zebra skin tassels. (His name is Norman, by the way.)

The Icelandic sheepskin:
KiltDressSporranIcelandicSheepskin:Wampa.jpg

And Norman. (I wish I had a better picture of him.)
Kitchen_Piping_Winter_Steam_Winter_Storm_Jordan_And_Norman.jpg

[MacGumerait]

Richard , I saw that sporran on ebay the other day . I noticed the Gordon cantle and thought about sending you a PM about it as I know from your threads and posts you might have been interested . Obviously , you were already on it !

On a side note , I had John at Bonsai make a sporran for me back in January of this year . Leather cantle and Icelandic sheep hair , it's shown with a chain strap but I wear it with a leather strap . Here's a pic .



Cheers , Mike

[OC Richard]

Very nice!

I've seen those bonsai sporrans on Ebay regularly. I tend to really like the ones with vintage cantles and not care as much for the ones with leather cantles. I don't know why, because I really like certain sporrans by other makers with leather cantles. He's creative and thinks a bit outside the box, while at the same time many of his sporrans have something 'old' about their look.

But long hair, YES! I love it.

[PiperOfThePlains]

Very nice!

I've seen those bonsai sporrans on Ebay regularly. I tend to really like the ones with vintage cantles and not care as much for the ones with leather cantles. I don't know why, because I really like certain sporrans by other makers with leather cantles. He's creative and thinks a bit outside the box, while at the same time many of his sporrans have something 'old' about their look.

But long hair, YES! I love it.

I totally agree. The cantle on my Icelandic sheepskin is less than top quality. I'd recommend being very suspicious. MacGumerait's, though, looks very dashing!

[OC Richard]

Here's what I suspect is the same cantle, which came up not long ago on Ebay. Bonsai evidently snapped it up and made good use of it



And here's a fairly similar style seen in The Highlanders Of Scotland, once again demonstrating MacLeay's fantastic eye for detail