Regimental Sporrans

[OC Richard]

I've always hankered after a horsehair sporran, with a roomy bag...

Starting, I would think, around the 1830s when long hair sporrans appeared they generally didn't fully open.

Rather, they had a cramped leather pocket on the back. Sometimes these had gussets but if you had anything bulky in the pocket it would stick out making the whole sporran not lay flat.



This even continued with the small silver-topped sealskin Evening Dress sporrans which became popular in the 1920s.



In the army, in 1953 they introduced the leather pouch "Culloden" sporrans with an opening hinged brass top which wasn't very roomy but at least it was a practical bag.



However in 1968 these were replaced by a new Other Ranks horsehair sporran which did have a fully opening top and huge roomy body.

Oddly the straps for the sporran belt were stitched to the front panel, making the thing lay nice and flat but difficult to open (collage below, top two photos).

At some later point they moved the straps to the back panel and put a fastener on (two photos lower right).

From the front these sporrans were quite a departure from the various regiments' traditional sporrans (four photos lower left).

For one thing all of them had the same hideous chrome cantle.

For another thing they were too short, being only 14 inches long rather than the traditional 18 inches for military hair sporrans.

You can see that there's a number of grommets punched through the front panel. This was to allow the traditional tassel arrangements of the various regiments be imitated.

They were made in the four models shown lower left, clockwise from top left Gordon Highlanders, Black Watch, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, Queens Own Highlanders.



Anyhow these come up on Ebay all the time and usually don't cost much. I have a black one that came with no cantle and no tassels, which was a very good thing. I stuck a nice vintage cantle on it for a big roomy hair sporran.

There's a couple on Ebay now but way overpriced https://www.ebay.com/itm/12659376264...ition=4&edge=0