What's the story on the huge hairy sporrans

[Dale-of-Cedars]

There is a purported WWI or earlier Black Watch horsehair sporran on eBay right now. With interesting photos of the tooling on the back and pouch.

[artificer]

Wow Dale, that's a beauty. I've seen some with tooling on the back, but not the beautifully pinked edge on the trim like that.

I know that officers in other (non-Highland) regiments had to purchase their own uniforms. I wonder if it was a case of an officer having his sporran made to HIS specs.

[creagdhubh]

Wow Dale, that's a beauty. I've seen some with tooling on the back, but not the beautifully pinked edge on the trim like that.

I know that officers in other (non-Highland) regiments had to purchase their own uniforms. I wonder if it was a case of an officer having his sporran made to HIS specs.

Interesting question!

[Dale-of-Cedars]

Wow Dale, that's a beauty. I've seen some with tooling on the back, but not the beautifully pinked edge on the trim like that.

I know that officers in other (non-Highland) regiments had to purchase their own uniforms. I wonder if it was a case of an officer having his sporran made to HIS specs.

Thought I'd capture the images before they vanished:





BTW, it went for 163.00GBP / ~$260.

[OC Richard]

Sporran backs like that, with the tooling etc, were common in the early 20th century. I've owned several vintage sporrans with backs like that- let me tell you they don't hold much and aren't very convenient to get into.

BTW the fact that that sporran is silverplated indicates a Volunteer Battalion.

Regular battalions of the Black Watch wore gilt cantles.

Since the traditional gilt Black Watch NCO's/Officer's cantles are now worn by all ranks of the Royal Regiment of Scotland they have become quite commonplace and are on Ebay continuously.

[creagdhubh]

Sporran backs like that, with the tooling etc, were common in the early 20th century. I've owned several vintage sporrans with backs like that- let me tell you they don't hold much and aren't very convenient to get into.

For this reason alone, is why I tend to think pockets on hair sporrans are superfluous.

Cheers,

[artificer]

Sporran backs like that, with the tooling etc, were common in the early 20th century. I've owned several vintage sporrans with backs like that- let me tell you they don't hold much and aren't very convenient to get into.

BTW the fact that that sporran is silverplated indicates a Volunteer Battalion.

Regular battalions of the Black Watch wore gilt cantles.

Since the traditional gilt Black Watch NCO's/Officer's cantles are now worn by all ranks of the Royal Regiment of Scotland they have become quite commonplace and are on Ebay continuously.

I've seen many tooled like this, but have never seen the very ornate pinked trim.

Interesting to now about the silver vs gilt cantle.

Sporran backs like that, with the tooling etc, were common in the early 20th century. I've owned several vintage sporrans with backs like that- let me tell you they don't hold much and aren't very convenient to get into.

For this reason alone, is why I tend to think pockets on hair sporrans are superfluous.

Cheers,

I tend to think of this sort of pocket as a "ticket pocket", basically enough for a few business cards, evening tickets, and a small clip w/tip money and my credit card. These are definitely NOT designed to hold a day's worth of stuff for the Highland Games

ith:

[OC Richard]

For this reason alone, is why I tend to think pockets on hair sporrans are superfluous.

True enough with old sporrans, but the MOD horsehair sporrans adopted in the 1980s are one huge extremely roomy pocket! These are on Ebay all the time now. The modern Royal Regiment of Scotland sporrans look just like a traditional Black Watch NCO/Officer sporrans from the front (but with the two long tassels from The Gordon Highlanders) but are very roomy and practical.

Here's the traditional Black Watch sporran



and the new RRS sporran derived from it



Here's what they're like on the back and inside. This is my goathair sporran, but the new MOD sporrans are made just like this

[Border Chief]

Some examples of antique sporran molachs:









From Highland Dress, Arms and Ornament by Lord Archibald Campbell:

[OC Richard]

In contrast to the white sporrans with elaborate metalwork seen above, it is interesting to note that in The Highlanders of Scotland the long hair sporrans worn with "day" tweed outfits often lack any metalwork whatsoever, and are often in brown or grey hair.

Here are some with plain stitched black leather cantles:







Plain leather cantle (but with badge affixed) on the right, a plain brass cantle on the left:



And here are some closeups of these "day" sporrans of the 1860s:











And lastly, this caught my eye on Ebay a while back, a sporran made in 1938 which is on all fours with the sporrans above: