Horse hair sporrans . . .

[artificer]

Wow, Artificer, that one is really nice!

Thank you. I really enjoyed making this one, and have plans to remake many of the other MacLeay sporrans as well.

One thing to consider is that there are hair sporrans, and there are hair sporrans.

Matt,
isn't the Duke of Argyll's actually goat hair? I assumed it was (possibly incorrectly)

Either way, it is a stunner, and a complete favorite of mine.

ith:

[T-Bone]

I agree with Mr. Newsome. There are different types of hair sporrans for different occasions. Here is the one I made earlier this year. I think it can be worn for tweed coat or black coat events (I'm not going to get into the range of formality)

[OC Richard]

Here's the one I recently built

Wow that is fantastic! A classic Victorian "day" sporran.

People saying that long hair sporrans are only for military Full Dress are coming from the Highland dress as it was codified and systematised in the early 20th century, at which time our modern Evening Dress and Day Dress sporrans were adopted.

In Victorian times long hair sporrans were worn in all modes of Highland Dress. Oftentimes the sporrans worn with grey tweed jackets were quite plain, having a plain leather cantle and leather cones, and made of grey or brown hair, hinting at the Day/Evening sporran dichotomy which was to appear in the 20th century.

Here is the Victorian equivalent to 20th century Day Dress:



and some vintage photos showing a similar sporran style worn with less-formal Highland attire









These sporrans above were the Day sporrans of their time.

Now here are some people wearing sporrans with metal fittings as Day sporrans with tweed etc







Note here how the piper in the centre, wearing all sorts of accessories, and the man on the left, dressed quite plainly, are both wearing long hair sporrans

[creagdhubh]

Great Topic!

I absolutely adore horsehair sporrans, or sometimes referred to as asporan molach in Scottish Gaelic. I own a copy of Delia Miller's, The Highlanders of Scotland, featuring wonderfully painted watercolour portraits of various Highland men, painted by Victorian artist, Kenneth MacLeay. It is interesting to note that most of MacLeay's Highland sitters are indeed wearing a variety of horsehair sporrans, which can be a great source of inspiration for those who like to wear horsehair sporrans today (see posts containing snippets of MacLeay's body of work above). I tend to restrict the wearing of my horsehair sporrans for evening attire - either at black or white tie events. I believe that horsehair sporrans are a very ornate accessory to the fullest of Highland formal dress, and should be treated as such. One exception of wearing a horsehair sporran for day wear would be if you are piper, and as such, you are obviously in uniform, where the wearing of a horsehair sporran is to be expected. I do not like to see horsehair sporrans with Highland day attire, but that is simply my honest opinion.

I currently own two very well made, high quality horsehair sporrans: The first is a six tassle design based off of Lachlan Mor Macpherson's (Champion of Scotland)sporan molach featured in The Highlanders of Scotland. This sporran is indeed bespoke and was made by L&M Highland Outfitters, Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. The second horsehair sporran I own is made by Kate Macpherson of Pethshire, Scotland, and features a brown horsehair body, 2 black horsehair tassles with plain silver cones, and a plain silver cantle. I definitely plan to commission several more sporrans, as I would like to vary the tassle and body colour, the number of tassles, and the use of different cantles - with or without affixed devices. I would also like to own a horsehair sporran with no tassles at all - a design, again featured in The Highlanders of Scotland. Enjoy the photos below!

Kate Macpherson Bespoke Horsehair Sporran.


L&M Highland Outfitters Bespoke Horsehair Sporran. Note my Chief, Cluny's horsehair sporran - he told me it is over 150 years old!


A closer look at Cluny's beautiful horsehair sporran. I am wearing a simple white rabbit evening sporran with a silver lattice cantle (the Prince Charlie coatee featured is sadly no longer with us...it is long gone!!!).


Close-up of the L&M horsehair sporran.


Another, rather unusual look at the L&M horsehair sporran - the cones are all thistle embossed, same as the trim of the cantle - which matches the thistle embossed buckles on my evening brogues. I believe your metalwork should match fairly well for Highland evening attire.


P.S. - I use Cowboy Magic, in order to keep the horsehair conditioned, rich and shiny. My wee sister is an accomplished equestrian, so I have ample access to the 'liquid gold'!!!

Slainte mhath,

[Andy Proffitt]

I think the horsehair sporran can be moved down the scale of formality. The very structured, trimmed, longer length, white, metal cantle models never look right out of a formal setting to me.
If ,however, the colors are more to the brown/gray end, there is little to no metal (like Articficer's sporran above, which I am lusting after now), the length is shorter than the standard horsehair model, and it is less structured and looks more like....well, a horses tail, then I think it can carried of in more informal or daywear situations.
I do think it is a dressy daywear option. If you do wear one, I would pair it at the minimum with a nice tweed waistcoat, better yet with a nice tweed jacket and waistcoat.

[Steelbunnet]

Have 3 different styles avaliable, they are the more formal parade/piper style, but for the money it's hard to go wrong.

For the skinny ones there's also some interesting kilt options