History of the plain leather day sporran?

[Galician]

This might actually tie in with another thread here. The "trews" being worn by the young gallant in that painting seem to be more what we call "tights" than trousers. Though he is clearly wearing flashes, the garment seems to be of one piece with his hose.

If this were the case, might not the sporran be the Scottish equivalent of the codpiece? That would account for the specifically Scottish style of wearing it.

[JSFMACLJR]

This might actually tie in with another thread here. The "trews" being worn by the young gallant in that painting seem to be more what we call "tights" than trousers. Though he is clearly wearing flashes, the garment seems to be of one piece with his hose.

If this were the case, might not the sporran be the Scottish equivalent of the codpiece? That would account for the specifically Scottish style of wearing it.

No, the sporran was a purse, due to the absence of pockets. No need to read anything else into it.

[Monkey@Arms]

No, the sporran was a purse, due to the absence of pockets. No need to read anything else into it.

Sure, rather some simple fuctional leather pouch a guy straps a big hairy bag on his groin, sometimes topped with a fierce animal head. Why would anyone read anything into that?

Best regards,

Jake

[NewGuise]

No, the sporran was a purse, due to the absence of pockets. No need to read anything else into it.

Then again the codpiece, too, often functioned as a purse - safer from those thieves known as cut-purses ...

[Redshank]

the leather bag used as a purse pre sporran days was and still is called a "poke" here in the highlands.

[nagod]

Then again the codpiece, too, often functioned as a purse - safer from those thieves known as cut-purses ...

while i can see that both are used to hold valuables do you have a cite for the use as purses?

[NewGuise]

while i can see that both are used to hold valuables do you have a cite for the use as purses?

Not an easy/brief one, I fear. That tidbit was the result of a few years of research, which began because I was dealing with early English plays in which there were some odd erotic (and homoerotic) relationships/dialogue involving putting money in purses; I only started to figure out what was going on when I tried staging such plays. But believe me, there are numerous (if often slightly oblique) literary/dramatic references to coins, jewelry (insert "family jewels" joke here), and even pistols (!) being kept in codpieces. The word cod means testicle or scrotum, but by 1000 CE could be used to mean bag, and by the C18 became a slang term for purse.

[I should add that I've presented scholarly papers that deal with this topic at the annual medieval conference in, yes, Kalamazoo, Michigan!]

[MacLowlife]

Thanks CajunScot,

That picture and the motion of the tassels on the sporran give rise to memories of a lady I once saw dance. Clockwise AND counter-clockwise.

[Highlander31]

Anybody remember all the hype about the fanny pack when it came out in the late '70's, early '80's? The new way to carry/keep the items you needed at hand. They neglected to mention the "new way" was backed up by some 800 to 900 years of R&D.

[Donnie]

My friend OC Richard, you have hit a nerve. I don't mean this in a confrontational way, and I don't mean to steal a thread, but, that is not a tooled pattern on that sporran. That is embossed, or pressed into the leather, with a machine. Tooling is much more beautiful (and tedious work) hand cut and hand worked. Embossing envolves putting the piece of leather in a machine and pressing a button. It takes about 30 seconds to put that pattern on the leather. That same pattern hand tooled would take about an hour or so to do correctly. Sorry if I have stepped on any toes, this is just a pet pieve of mine!