Origin and Evolution of "Day" sporrans

[OC Richard]

I'm always interesting in the origin of things and how they evolved over time.

With sporrans there's a direct unbroken lineage of evolution:

The earliest sporrans we see in iconography, more or less deerskin poke bags;

>brass-cantled sporrans of the mid-18th century;

>ornate sealskin sporrans with numerous bullion tassels around 1800;

>bushy goathair sporrans of the early 19th century;

>long horsehair sporrans of the mid 19th century.

There the evolution stopped, these last still being made and worn today, both in the Army and with military-style civilian Pipe Band uniform.

Sometime around the beginning of the 20th century a new style of sporran emerged, called by people writing at the time "small, round" or "pocket-shaped" leather sporrans, worn with Day Dress/Outdoor Dress/Field Dress/Morning Dress. The traditional long hair sporrans continued to be worn with Evening Dress.

It had been my theory that the new leather pocketlike sporrans might have had a military origin, perhaps connected to the new Khaki Serge Service Dress introduced in 1908. This made sense not only because of the timing, but also because the new sporrans seemed an outlier, apparently based on military pockets or pouches rather than traditional sporrans.



Then I saw this photo, said to have been taken in 1907.

Here, before they appear in the military, before they appear in the catalogues I've seen, are fully developed 20th century "Day" sporrans.



If anyone has other early photos showing these sporrans I'd love to see them posted here!

Whatever their origin, around the time of World War One they're being offered in catalogues, here Fraser Ross



By the 1930s they're the most common "Day" sporran, though joined with animal mask sporrans (having long been used as a smaller Outdoor sporran going back to Victorian times) reproductions of mid-18th century brass-cantled sporrans, and Hunting sporrans (another thing having mysterious origins)



And there the evolution stopped, for a half-century.

Here's a catalogue from the 1960s offering the same styles seen continuously from the 1920s



But in the 1970s the Traditional Highland Dress which had remained unchanged for a half-century was about to enter another period of rapid change, this time due to the massive rise of the Kilt Hire Industry.

This industry focused on two jackets, the black Prince Charlie and the black Argyll, and sporrans had to be modified to suit.

The traditional brown Day sporran had to be done up in black. Also, as a less-expensive alternative to sealskin Evening sporrans a new category of sporran was introduced, the so-called "Semi-Dress" sporran.

These sporrans, to me, had a bit of a make-do feel, as the sporran makers borrowed bits from their Evening sporrans and stuck them on leather Day sporrans.



So there things sat for the next quarter-century or so.

But more recently there have been ever more twists and modifications of the traditional Day sporran.

Here at upper left, the current fad of sticking huge cast-metal doohickies on leather sporrans, so contrary to their function as pockets, and also using big metal cylinders on the tassels instead of the small elegant lightweight spheres.

Also to be seen is the recent thing of making an outsized flap that covers most of the sporran (imagine a pocket with a flap that big) and also of printing coloured designs on the leather.



How many of these things will last? Will be eventually be accepted into the tradition? Who can say! We won't know for another half-century or so.