very interesting sporran on Ebay

[OC Richard]

I've seen hundreds of horsehair sporrans, but I've never seen a cantle with that design.

There was so much variey in Highland dress back c1900 up through the 1920's, so many interesting buckle designs and sporran cantle designs one doesn't see anymore.

Just to calibrate our eye so to speak, here's the most commonly see horsehair sporran, with its crome-plated cast cantle with thistle designs. Thousands of these have been made over the years and you'll see examples made in the 1940's and they're still being made today, both in Scotland and in Pakistan.



Nowdays you'll sometimes see Scottish sporran makers putting Evening sporran cantles on horsehair sporrans:



Interestingly, in the Army and in general in the old days, horsehair sporrans rarely had one knob: they had either three, or none. Here's an antique cantle somewhat similar to the modern cantle shown above but a slightly different pattern and with three knobs:



So when a sporran with Celtic designs, one I've never seen, crops up it grabs my attention, like this one, which I bought and I'm wearing in my avatar:



Even more rare and interesting are Victorian cantles which are cut out of sheet silver and engraved, rather than cast: