Leather Restoration on MOD 'Culloden' Brass Cantle Sporran

[ShaunMaxwell]

Congratulations on the acquisition of a beautiful sporran! No doubt you’ll get much use from it.

SM

[Wareyin]

What a beautiful sporran. Wear it with pride!

[WillowEstate]

Late to the thread but for what it's worth...

That is a truly outstanding rebuild of your sporran; I'm sure you made the right decision to have it re-bagged by an obvious craftsperson. Wear it with pride.

I have a similar brass cantle sporran, which, when I got it, still had the Blanco on both the bag and the belt but it was badly cracked. A military friend suggested that the best option was to remove the blanco down to the leather and start afresh. He recommended a stiff clothesbrush. I was sceptical, but it did, indeed, remove every trace of the blanco. Sadly, the belt disintegrated but the buckle was sound and I reused that on a new belt. Under the blanco, the leather was sound and very soft, not sure what animal it came from, it looks more like pigskin but that seems unlikely. The surface had a brushed appearance, almost like suede, in a light brown colour. So attractive, in fact, that I kept it like that.

I've always intended to get a new bag for it and your experience has me thinking that it's time to get on with it and stop procrastinating!

[jesuisprest]

33035768_10156292441965890_207911786182082560_n.jpg
32956336_10156292441840890_1466602727378255872_n.jpg33059367_10156292441545890_3285993243816230912_n.jpg33057438_10156292441660890_4973994770729795584_n.jpg

I thought I would include a few more photos of the bag now in my possession. It is pretty special and Greg at Margaret Morrison gave me first class service in sourcing a really nice deerskin. I highly reccommend their services. As you can see they ship it in a beautiful box to keep it in too and the sporran strap(belt) is really simple and is also made out of the same skin as the sporran.

I photographed my second brass cantle sporran that just arrived beside the one I just received from MM. Needless to say I will be sending this to them too for a rebagging in the future.

WillowEstate, if you are able to send yours to them. If anyone can help you they can.

Best,
Adam

[jesuisprest]

So I just got some photos of my second brass cantle sporran that has been rebagged by the folks at Margaret Morrison Ltd. I originally found the bag being sold as a ladies handbag in an NYC vintage clothing store. It is amazing where these things end up. I wanted to do something a bit different and unique with this piece and I had the idea to bag it in the Russian calf leather from the Metta Catharina shipwreck. I contacted the supplier and bought half a hide. When it arrived at my house I could not believe the smell, a mix of pipe tobacco and Lagavulin 16. I sent this on to Greg and yesterday I finally received these photos. I really cannot believe how good it looks. It is just amazing and the quality of the leather and the workmanship is amazing. They will be posting photos of the process of making this sporran on their social media. Once again, I cannot reccommend Greg and the team highly enough!

unnamed.jpg

unnamed-1.jpg

[McMurdo]

They are both beautiful, excellent work from Margret Morrison there. I have 2 brass cantled sporrans and find for daywear these are my favourite sporrans to lay my hands on. I'm sure you will find the same is true of yours. Enjoy a lifetime with them.

[Nomad]

Very very nice and as a diver I like the connection with an old wreck. The leather colouring and pattern are great, quite an inspirational piece.

[jesuisprest]

Very very nice and as a diver I like the connection with an old wreck. The leather colouring and pattern are great, quite an inspirational piece.

Ah! I was going to pm you about this! I hope you like, I wasn't sure if this would even work or not as I was not sure if it was going to be easy to get the leather and additionally how complicated it might be to work with. I love that you are a diver too, you must have seen some amazing stuff. I am an archaeologist and so the idea of getting a textile preserved from the past is very exciting to me. I agree with you about the colouring, the variation that occurs is so unique.

Best,
Adam

[Nomad]

It's cracking, I did a search on the wreck and can't believe that the leather survived all that time, mud pack or not 😄.