Quality Sporrans for less money

[Father Bill]

Very nice brown leather Day sporran in apparently new condition.

No markings but it has the look of a quality Scottish-made sporran.

Around $70 including post to the USA.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/11549901881...tion=10%7C3000

Um, yes, but nothing 'semi-dress' about it as posted. These guys really know little about what they're posting or else they're patently dishonest.

[Jock Scot]

Um, yes, but nothing 'semi-dress' about it as posted. -----------

Exactly so!

[OC Richard]

Here's a Scottish-made (probably W E Scott Edinburgh) sporran in seemingly new condition.

Not super-cheap at $70 but still a fraction of what it would cost new.

This is one of those patterns which as far as I can tell was introduced around the time Kilt Hire started taking off.

Features of these including using black leather, and putting elements borrowed from Evening sporrans on leather Day sporrans.

For whatever reason this particular style, a traditional Hunting sporran done up in black, and with a chrome Evening cantle added, became the standard Pipe Band sporran worldwide. At big competitions you can see a dozen bands, one after another, all wearing this style. It's probably the most-copied sporran in Pakistan for that reason.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Scottish-Ce...p2056016.l4276

Here it is in a catalogue in the 1980s or 1990s HS/T/B (probably Hunting Sporran/Top/Black)

[OC Richard]

Um, yes, but nothing 'semi-dress' about it as posted. These guys really know little about what they're posting or else they're patently dishonest.

I think they just don't know.

I see things with odd descriptions all the time. The most common is people thinking that Highland civilian photos, kilts, sporrans, jackets, etc are military.

I wish I had a dollar for every time I saw a civilian thing listed as "Scottish military officer's __________ ".

(For some reason it's always "officer's". Seems that in the Scottish regiments there were 300 officers for every private.)

I also wish I had a dollar for every bagpipe I've seen listed as being "recovered from a WWI battlefield". From the sheer number of these, it must be difficult to walk across a WWI battlefield without stepping on a set of pipes.

[Crazy Dave]

Interesting. I have what appears to be an identical sporran, right down to the Made in Scotland label on the back. I bought it in an online auction. Of course here in the States, you can wear anything you want, but I'm curious. Obviously this is appropriate for a pipe band, but does it fit elsewhere in Highland dress? Could it be worn with daywear or evening wear, or is it neither fish nor fowl?

Dave

[OC Richard]

Good question, and the answer depends on one's feelings about "traditional Highland Dress" versus "post-traditional Highland Dress" (for lack of a better term).

Because in traditional Highland Dress (as it emerged around WWI) there's a near-total demarcation betweed "day" and "evening" dress and nothing in between. The catalogues of the 1920s and 1930s even recommend different kilts for Day and Eve (fine Saxony for evening, heavy worsted for day) but I recognise that the catalogues' job is to sell things.

In traditional Highland Dress leather sporrans were brown and for Day, end of story. Taking off in the 1970s the Kilt Hire Industry and the Pipe Band world combined to create a demand for black leather sporrans using the old Day patterns (often with chrome "evening" elements added) to go with their new hybrid Day/Eve outfits based around the black Argyll jacket (pipe bands) or the black Prince Charlie (kilt hire) and white hose.

Just why the Pipe Band world leapt on that particular style, Hunting sporran in black with chrome top, who can say. My theory is that it combined ruggedness (no tassels to fall off, no fur to wear off) with a bit of shiny bling.

[OC Richard]

Speaking of "semi-dress" sporrans, here's quite a bargain especially for US buyers, a Nicoll Brothers black leather sporran with seal front for well under $50. It seems in great condition.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/17540306652...tion=10%7C3000

[Jock Scot]

Speaking of "semi-dress" sporrans, here's quite a bargain especially for US buyers, a Nicoll Brothers black leather sporran with seal front for well under $50. It seems in great condition.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/17540306652...tion=10%7C3000

Well alright, individual perceptions will differ and perceptions across the Atlantic may differ even more. That is a rather inconvenient fact of life on occasion.

For me, I might happily spend £50 on the sporran and then burn it! To my rather jaundiced eye those sporrans of that style are an insult to Scottish attire. They are built down to a price where quality and artistic effect are non existent.

[OC Richard]

To my rather jaundiced eye those sporrans of that style are an insult to Scottish attire. They are built down to a price where quality and artistic effect are non-existent.

About quality I'll have to disagree, as it's made by Nicoll Brothers (Bankfoot) which were one of the old-school makers (going back to the 1840s). I've owned a few modern Nicoll Bros sporrans and to me the quality is quite good, a notch above W E Scott & Son (Edinburgh) but perhaps a notch below L&M Highland (Nova Scotia) who are two other old-school makers.

About artistic effect, that fundamental style has been around at least since the 1930s, that Celtic knot tooling pattern appearing on the flap, and oftentimes the body, here in 1938 (#55)



and here are various manifestations of it from various makers and various periods attesting to its long-term popularity.



Here's the Ebay sporran in question. I will say I prefer to the appearance of the sewn-in flap with leather binding as seen above, however on vintage sporrans I've noticed that the binding often starts coming loose.

The fold-over flap seen below has more long-term durability and makes reaching into the sporran a bit easier.

(The eagle-eyed will note that the lower-left sporran in the collage above is also by Nicoll Brothers Bankfoot.)

[Jock Scot]

Well alright, individual perceptions will differ and perceptions across the Atlantic may differ even more. That is a rather inconvenient fact of life on occasion.

.

I think the above covers the situation perfectly.