History of seal skin sporrans

[rab _]

I am hoping some of the more knowledgeable members can give some information on the use of seal skin in sporran making.
These last few days much has been written on the topic of seal skin, given the recent EU ruling. Without wanting to start a discussion on ethics, I am interested to know how long seal skin has been associated with sporran making.
I have read in many articles now that that seal skin is the traditional material for a dress sporran (in a range of publications), but is this really so?
More generally I am also interested in when the style of full dress sporran most common in Scotland today (3 tassled, seal skin with a metal cantle) became popular.

[Phil]

from Edinburgh. Can't help you with the sealskin sporan question but I'm sure there are plenty here that can. They are about to be made illegal anyway so rush out and get one now before they are.

[Peter C.]

I bought a seal skin sporran in 1974 in the UK. I believe badger skin was traditional for dress sporrans before that but was made ilegal in the '50s or
'6os.

Peter

[McFarkus]

from Chicago. I suspect sealskin was readily available since no place in Scotland is far from the sea. I have a badger sporran (not a full-mask) for dress as well as a Canadian beaver. Matt Newsome has some great fur sporrans on his website and Turpin does an amazing job with badger and other critters.

[Peter C.]

from Chicago. I suspect sealskin was readily available since no place in Scotland is far from the sea. I have a badger sporran (not a full-mask) for dress as well as a Canadian beaver. Matt Newsome has some great fur sporrans on his website and Turpin does an amazing job with badger and other critters.

I'm fairly certain sealskins for sporrans in the UK came from Canada. There are places around the UK where seals are common but around most of the British coast you don't see them.

Peter

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

Sealskin has been used to make sporrans for literally hundreds of years, with seal skins being traded from the North of Scotland for probably close on to a thousand years, if not longer. Generally speaking the present shape of the modern seal skin sporran dates from the 19th century and is, in fact, evolved from the sporrans of the 17th and 18th centuries.

And welcome to XMTS.

[Woodsheal]

Sealskin has been used to make sporrans for literally hundreds of years, with seal skins being traded from the North of Scotland for probably close on to a thousand years, if not longer. Generally speaking the present shape of the modern seal skin sporran dates from the 19th century and is, in fact, evolved from the sporrans of the 17th and 18th centuries.

Exactly! Sealing is comparable to whaling in terms of having a LONG history, in both the Old and New Worlds. Even Nantucket whalemen would engage in sealing to augment their whale-oil trade, as I'm sure took place in the Brits' Greenland fishery as well. So, as Mac states, sealskin products of all sorts surely date back many centuries....

[Phil]

Exactly! Sealing is comparable to whaling in terms of having a LONG history, in both the Old and New Worlds. Even Nantucket whalemen would engage in sealing to augment their whale-oil trade, as I'm sure took place in the Brits' Greenland fishery as well. So, as Mac states, sealskin products of all sorts surely date back many centuries....

I have never heard of any significant sealing in Scotland and wonder if there have ever been enough seals for a viable industry. I believe seal fur is only marketable from the pups in their first few days of life so the supply was bound to be extremely small from small, widely separated areas. The trade is more likely to have been encouraged by the likes of the Hudson's Bay Company along with other furs such as beaver.
Does anyone know what other commercial uses there are for seal fur? I know it was used in fly-tying until substitutes were introduced which made it obsolete. Also I have seen trinkets and ornaments such as paperweights from Newfoundland where it has been used. It is a fairly hard and coarse fur so maybe sporans were the most suitable use for it

[NorCalPiper]

I think that continuation of this topic is inviting controversy no matter what its intention.

[Woodsheal]

I have never heard of any significant sealing in Scotland and wonder if there have ever been enough seals for a viable industry.

There was lots of sealing going on around the globe, even if not specifically in Scotland, so sealskin was probably not a scarce commodity. I'm thinking early-to-mid 19th C. here, when our modern-style sporrans developed....