Tassels on a sporran

**freddie** · 30th January 11, 05:12 AM

Personally I don't think it's a proper sporran unless it's got tassles. I think it all adds to the 'swing' when you walk, especially the long tails on my military horse hair sporran.

**OC Richard** · 30th January 11, 06:14 AM

Originally Posted by freddie

Personally I don't think it's a proper sporran unless it's got tassles.

too bad John Burgess couldn't afford a proper sporran!

**BoldHighlander** · 31st January 11, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by freddie

Personally I don't think it's a proper sporran unless it's got tassles.

hmmm....
I wonder if these chaps worried about rather their sporrans were 'proper' while fighting Hitler?

Or if the Royals cared rather these jocks escorting them were wearing 'proper' sporrans or not?

And then there is this chap from the Great War, he had to make do to wear a sporran (I wonder if he gave a thought to rather it was 'proper' or not?)...

And I'm sure HRH would be happy to know that his sporran is not 'proper'...

Originally Posted by OC Richard

too bad John Burgess couldn't afford a proper sporran!

Seems that all in all, given the above, I'm in pretty good company, eh?

**MacGuffin** · 1st February 11, 01:16 AM

Strangely I'm a fan of both tasseled and non tasseled sporrans. It depends on the styles of sporran. Some look fantastic with tassels and others without.

**artificer** · 1st February 11, 05:37 AM

Originally Posted by MacGuffin

Strangely I'm a fan of both tasseled and non tasseled sporrans. It depends on the styles of sporran. Some look fantastic with tassels and others without.

It's not strange at all. Some sporrans really NEED tassels, some look great with OR without. It's just a few of the rabble poking fun at the "not a proper sporran without tassels" statement.

ith:

I personally tend to prefer tassels only when they have some function.

**BoldHighlander** · 1st February 11, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by artificer

Some sporrans really NEED tassels, some look great with OR without. It's just a few of the rabble poking fun at the "not a proper sporran without tassels" statement.

ith:

:mrgreen:

**freddie** · 3rd February 11, 01:48 PM

Sorry, 'proper' was the wrong term of phrase to use. What I ment was that to me a sporran without tassles or tails just looks bare and in some cases incomplete. Anyway that's just my opinion so each to his own.

**OC Richard** · 4th February 11, 06:01 AM

Originally Posted by freddie

to me a sporran without tassles just looks bare and in some cases incomplete.

They looked that way to me also, for many years, until I began collecting old images of pipers and others in Highland Dress, and discovered that in the c1840-1900 period it was very common for long hair sporrans (by far the most widely worn sporrans of that period) to lack tassels.

I posted several images of people wearing tasselless sporrans; I have several times more I could have posted.

On the other hand, it's true that tassels seem to have been standard on sporrans from the get-go. 18th century sporrans nearly always have them, and early 19th century sporrans as well. So the fad of leaving tassels off a sporran could be viewed as a Victorian aberration.

Now about calling tassels "tails", which to me conjures up the image of a long hair sporran with two or three long tassels, I should point out that originally all tassels were short. The regimental sporrans we think of as being very traditional are actually rather recent. The Gordon Highlanders and Seaforth Highlanders which we associate with sporrans having two long tassels, had five and six short tassels up until the 1880s. The Argylls and Black Watch never made the switch to two long tassels, and stayed with their six and five short tassels.