Let's talk full dress sporrans

[saxandpipes]

This is mine… a wonderful piece of craftsmanship from Artificer:



sporran.jpg

I also have a lovely old horse-hair sporran:



Cheers,

Michael

[Orionson]

Can't resist the temptation to add the close-ups of my own Artificer beauty. For those who have seen it before, forgive me. For those who haven't, enjoy!
Duff-Broughton-Heintz-Artificer Sporran1.jpg
and...

Duff-Broughton-Heintz-Artificer Sporran2.jpg

[creagdhubh]

Can't resist the temptation to add the close-ups of my own Artificer beauty. For those who have seen it before, forgive me. For those who haven't, enjoy!
Duff-Broughton-Heintz-Artificer Sporran1.jpg
and...

Duff-Broughton-Heintz-Artificer Sporran2.jpg

Everything about this sporran is absolutely gorgeous!!!

[Tobus]

Wow, I like it too! The colour combinations of the hair and tassels are very rich and wonderful. What is the cantle made of? It looks like copper.

Alright, so there has to be an anti hair sporran demographic out there among the rabble. I could swear I've seen it mentioned before on here that outside of a military context they are costume-like. The thing is, I can't remember who put forth that opinion. Where are you hiding?

*stirs the pot*

I do believe that Jock Scot has tried to politely point out that hair sporrans are just not part of modern civilian Highland tradition. You can probably search some of the older threads for those discussions. It's been several years since we had one of them. As I recall, we were mostly talking about hair sporrans for daywear, which he (and some others) did indeed point out would be costumish. However, I have seen plenty of photographic evidence to suggest that hair sporrans are making quite the comeback for daywear, even amongst Highland chiefs.

It would be interesting to have that discussion again.

[OC Richard]

I could swear I've seen it mentioned before on here that outside of a military context...

Yes it's a common misconception that long hair sporrans = military.

Fact is, the long hair sporran evolved in the natural course of things from earlier sporrans, and was the standard sporran for all modes of Highland Dress (military, civilian evening, civilian day) throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th, when an entire suite of new small pocketlike sporrans appeared and swept the long hair sporran away (except in the Army, that bastion of tradition).

Though, at least in the 1840-1900 period, different sorts of long hair sporrans were worn for Day and Evening (plain stitched leather cantle and cones for the former, silver cantle and cones for the latter).

Here are long hair sporrans worn with "day" tweed by several men c1890 in Kilberry Scotland... these are pipers who wear Highland Dress regularly

[Orionson]

[QUOTE=Tobus;1206912]Wow, I like it too! The colour combinations of the hair and tassels are very rich and wonderful. What is the cantle made of? It looks like copper.

Thanks, Tobus. The cantle is Nickel Silver on Bronze in the style of the Arts Nouveau Craftsman, Otto Heintz who was heavily influenced by the Glasgow School of Art & Design in the early 1900's. Here is the link to Scott Huber's tale of the the sporran's evolution. I refer to it as the Duff/Broughton/Heintz/Artificer Sporran after each of the major contributors to it's creation.

http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=79255

[Orionson]

Come to think of it, "Duff-Broughton/Heintz-Huber" flows rather nicely and better reflects the collaboration.

PS... Thanks, Kyle. I note you are in Hamilton, Ohio. My Great-Grandfather Aaron Duff emigrated from Angus in 1832 and settled in Marietta, Ohio where my Dad was born in 1920. The Broughton side hale from Conneaut, Ohio. Scotland and Ohio are good places to be, and to be from.

[Nathan]

Richard,

I don't think anyone would argue that long haired sporrans were popular in the late 19th and early 20th century but if they've fell out of common use like plaids, that's something worth knowing. If, however, Tobus is right and they are making a big comeback in the Highlands, that would also be good to know. There is a local vendor here who refers to their sporrans molach as "pipers' sporrans"which, given the parallels between military and pipe band attire, supports your basic point that some people equate hair sporrans with uniforms rather than civilian attire.

[creagdhubh]

Come to think of it, "Duff-Broughton/Heintz-Huber" flows rather nicely and better reflects the collaboration.

PS... Thanks, Kyle. I note you are in Hamilton, Ohio. My Great-Grandfather Aaron Duff emigrated from Angus in 1832 and settled in Marietta, Ohio where my Dad was born in 1920. The Broughton side hale from Conneaut, Ohio. Scotland and Ohio are good places to be, and to be from.

Oh, well done! Thank you for sharing that bit of genealogical information regarding your great-grandfather, father and the State of Ohio (my adopted home state). I am familiar with Marietta and have been there a couple of times (my line of work brings me all over Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana and West Virginia). I have not been to Conneaut, but who knows, perhaps one day my work will bring me there! Cheers, my friend.

Best wishes,

P.S.- I was actually named after the village of Kyleakin (opposite of Kyle of Lochalsh) there in your part of the world on the Isle of Skye. I have maternal ancestors that came from that particular part of Scotland, so naturally my mother decided "Kyle" would be a fitting name for her wee bairn.

[Tobus]

If, however, Tobus is right and they are making a big comeback in the Highlands, that would also be good to know.

Here is where I step delicately with my wording. Notwithstanding the enthusiastic verbiage of my previous post, I did not mean to imply that they are making a "big comeback". But since a few years ago, when we last had the big kerfuffle about hair sporrans for daywear, I have seen a number of random examples from the Highlands of men wearing hair sporrans during the day. Trying to find them at this point would be difficult, since I haven't exactly been keeping notes on where they were or anything. And I'm sure the usual suspects would jump in to say that those are just examples of eccentric Scots who do not represent the whole of traditional Highland wear, or offer some other dismissive explanation as to why it's just wrong, wrong, wrong. They'd probably be correct, in many ways. It is not really a common thing, and may indeed still draw the dreaded raised eyebrow from modern-traditional Highlanders. But one does occasionally see a Highlander wearing a hair sporran during the day, and I seem to think it has become slightly more common (or less rare, as it were) in the last few years.

Of course, examples of hair sporrans for civilian evening attire are numerous. It appears that this is the one commonly accepted civilian use of a hair sporran in the Highlands, as Kyle's photos show.