Military hair sporran strap colour?

[MenOfTheNorth]

As promised (threatened) in my welcome post from yesterday, I arrive here on the forum as someone new to kilts and with a multitude of questions. I have been spending some time using the search feature on the forum to answer some questions - and the knowledge possessed and shared here is terrific thank you - but I still have some questions. I'll scatter them around the various sub-forums with which they seem to align. Please forgive me if I mis-name/identify anything and I welcome corrections. I'm keen to learn.

I am curious about the correct/appropriate colour for the leather strap for a military hair sporran. I have only seen original WD-marked ones in white/buff, no other colours. Were brown or black straps used? Was it dependent on the regiment? Photos and links to any sources of black-coloured examples welcomed.

Thank you.

MOTN

[Georgian Piper]

Soldiers normally wore buff (blanco'd to white) leathers, belts etc. Pipers wore black leather. A good source for this information is the Victoria War Forms.
http://www.victorianwars.com/

[RichardtheLarge]

I’ll leave this here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visi...IV_to_Scotland

But seriously, I mostly see white straps in levee dress (basically full military parade gear, baldrics, and so on). There is a sketch of another artist of George IV wearing the same outfit with a white sporran strap, and I imagine both sources are accurate and that he had a set of leather accessories made up in both colors. I’m not sure if the sporran strap is sometimes a sporran chain in this context, but remember that the chain is a Victorian era invention and not strictly ever necessary.

I personally think you would be just fine with a chain or strap in black or brown depending on the setting and what else you’re wearing. By all means, wear a brown strap with your tweed ensemble and a silver chain for eveningwear.

I would personally avoid white leather in this context for the same reason that I don’t wear spats. They have strong regimental and piping associations.

[blackwatch70]

I am curious about the correct/appropriate colour for the leather strap for a military hair sporran. I have only seen original WD-marked ones in white/buff, no other colours. Were brown or black straps used? Was it dependent on the regiment? Photos and links to any sources of black-coloured examples welcomed.

Thank you.

MOTN

In the British Army colour of hair sporran's strap depends on regimental traditions, and era.
for example, in 20 с the Royal Highlanders (Black Watch), Gordons and A&SH wore white sporran straps, and Seaforth and Camerons wore black ones...
Sometimes it was more complex - Officers and ORs of A&SH wore white and NCOs wore black...
so the best way to know - check regimental pictures and photos.

Brown straps have been worn only with undress sporrans (they also were brown usually) , but of course some regiments had black undress sporrans with black straps...

Pipers sporrans and their straps is also very interesting topic..

[MenOfTheNorth]

Thanks for the info.

[OC Richard]

Here are some photographic examples.

Black Watch:



Here the Pipe Major of the Gordon Highlanders is wearing black, the Drum Major of the Gordon Highlanders wearing white



Non-piper Other Ranks of the Argylls wearing white, piper of the Argylls wearing black




Black Watch wearing white



And here, apparently, black! Very strange, and goes to show how photographic postcards can be misleading, because sometimes they have been hand-coloured (painted over).

This two photos were obviously taken moments apart. Did the Pipe Major of the Black Watch suddenly change his sporran strap in between photos? As I said, strange.

[MenOfTheNorth]

Thanks for all this.

It is interesting to see the regimental variation. A bit more digging, with a focus on the Cameron Highlanders, would seem to point to that regiment's use of black sporran straps, at least for O/R sporrans.