Traditional sporran canon with examples

[OC Richard]

Richard ,

Not sure if this matches one of your catalog examples .

Here is a 1970 sporran that was given to me as a gift in 1970 . ( yes this dates me , but hey I was only 14 at the time )

It was purchased from Jack Ironside , silver plated cantle and seal skin .



Still in use today . ( current pic )

Cheers , Mike

Yes it's EW4 on the sheet, silver plated five-piece cantle, seal. The seal could be white, yellowish-white, silver, or grey.

[OC Richard]

I just picked up a PS 6" sporran in Tasmania, is there any way to accurately (or even approximately) date them?
Details I can provide; it's a purely decorative (no pouch) sporran, with horse hair over what I'm taking to be goat skin, "Made In Scotland" stamped in the back, but no marks in the metalwork to show maker, or production date.

Thing is, those were made more or less the same from the late 19th century up to today!

The pocket/no pocket thing was an option you could tick off when you ordered one, and doesn't help indicate date.

The things that do help date them are:

-older ones had a goathair-faced body (as you describe) with horsehair overlaid. Modern ones usually have a plain leather body (with horsehair overlaid of course).

-older ones have the metal in solid heavy German Silver, ones from around the 50s or 60s chrome-plated heavy solid brass, modern ones chrome plating over what sort of metal I can't identify.

-older ones have a pair of saddle-stitched leather belt loops on the back, modern ones usually have a single square of leather which functions as the belt loop.

It's one of those "feel" things: when I see, and especially when I handle, an old sporran I can usually get a fairly good feel for its age.

[Manxstralian]

Thanks for the info. Mine has two stitched tabs for a sporran strap, definitely goat skin (the goat hair is still white, though the horse hair is yellowed), and a faint greenish discolouration on the back of the cantle, so I'm assuming chromed brass (?). That would put it as 50's or 60's perhaps?
Cheers,
Cameron
Edit: How do you recognise German Silver? Is there a defining characteristic I could look into?

[Mike S]

When Nickel or "German" silver begins to tarnish, it takes on a brassy yellowish hue betraying the heavy copper content. Unlike sterling silver or silver plate, which tarnishes to black.

[Manxstralian]

Hopefully this can help with dating it!

Cheers,

Cameron

[OC Richard]

Just a guess, but yes perhaps the 50s or thereabouts.

German Silver just has an entirely different appearance, when polished or not, than Nickel plating or Chrome plating. One can understand why it was the standard metal for Highland ornaments throughout the latter 19th century and up until around the mid-20th: when polished it looks remarkably like Sterling Silver, yet is inexpensive.

c1900 bagpipe, by RG Lawrie, Glasgow, ebony, ivory, and German Silver



German Silver is more of a "warm" silver, Nickel and Chrome more of a "cool" silver.

This pic shows it well: a new chrome-plated set on the left, a 100 year old solid German Silver set on the right.

[OC Richard]

Here's a great pic of a vintage sporran showing how the horsehair is on top of a goat-hair covered body

[Manxstralian]

Oh, that's really nice! My goat hair is not nearly as long or curly, it looks quite "trimmed" .

Cheers,
Cameron

[Mike_Oettle]

Many thanks for this fascinating post, Richard.
I had no idea you once worked for a Highland outfitter – it explains a good deal about your knowledge of kiltwear.
Regards,
Mike

[OC Richard]

[EDIT] I had to re-organize this thread due to continuing to find more examples, and the 10-pic limit. Originally I had pages 4 and 5 on the same post; these had to be separated.

So Page 6 got bumped to here:



The PS/CT (Piper Sporran, Cast Top) is by far the most common civilian horsehair sporran nowadays, and has been for a few decades.

Here's one currently made



It was intended to be worn en suite with either the 355 (rectilinear) or 102 (oval) cast thistle pattern waistbelt and crossbelt buckles.

These patterns have been around since the last half of the 19th century at least.

Here's two sets of 102 hardware I own, modern chrome-plated set (L) and an Edwardian solid German Silver set (R). I have Edwardian 102 buckles in both landscape and portrait format; the latter has gone out of style.



For comparison here are vintage sporrans of roughly the same pattern as above