Horse hair sporrans . . .

[English Bloke]

Grrrrrr! ... See? ... Now I want that one... [sob!]

[rsvpiper]

Here's the one I recently built



based on John Stewart's sporran, as illustrated by Ken MacLeay (F) in the below pic







I wear it to our local St. Andrews meetings and dressier events.

I'll probably wear it to the local games this season as well. I like that some of the older sporrans have all leather cantles as MacLeay illustrated. It really is the multi-function piece, day through dress.

That's top draw kit Scott, very nice

[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

[beloitpiper]

artificer's horse hair sporran is the only kind of horse hair sporran I would wear outside of a piping gig.

[robbiethepiper]

I only wear mine when piping and wearing full no.1 dress ( feather bonnet,spats, pipers long plaid,cross belt.....). IMHO it is impractical and looks ludicrous at any other time. A bit like wearing a PC to visit the supermarket!!!

[Downunder Kilt]

I like the horsehair sporrans that Artificer and Josh at Skye Highland Outfitters are making, for what I believe are daywear. Each of them have leather cantles and I think that the are a very viable option to daywear leather sporrans. If however the hair sporran has a metal cantle, I believe in remains in the realm of evening wear. Though I have seen the one that Artificer did for David Pope and I think that with the hair used on that one, you could use it during daytime. From memory it had a brass cantle (I could be wrong)

[Duke of Delrio]

Nobody ever accused me of being a slave to fashion, or even much of a prisoner of tradition . . . .but for my two cents, a horsehair sporran is a fine and dandy rig for anyone. I would deny them to none. For myself, I somehow feel that black and white, or all-white horsehair sporrans are "dressier" and if they have metal cantles, I would wear them only for evening.

The ones with a more groomed or "trimmed" appearance and leather cantles have always seemed fine for daywear to me . . . especially if the horsehair is golden contrasted with brown.

Now, if you want to really see something sometime . . . you should see what braided horsehair can look like when it is done by someone who knows how it should be done. Saying that, I am not taking one thing away from the very fine horsehair sporran shown by Artificer's previous post. . .which, frankly, I find breathtaking.

[AKScott]

My take is that fur is a bit of bother. Mittens for dog mushing local to me are two layers of beaver fur, hairy on the inside, hairy on the outside, and elbow length. $200 and up.

I do have a few pieces for when the weather is really cold (even by Alaska standards) but they were expensive, and I am gentle with them.

The point, for me, is that when a hair (or hairs) come out, it doesn't grow back. A plain leather cowhide sporran can get beat on over the years and look better. A hair on piece is just going to deteriorate.

I am working with one of our sporran makers for a fur on sporran, it isn't going to be cheap, and I am going to take care of it. It will be evocative of traditional horsehair, it will have a pewter cantle and I will likely only wear it in the evening.

If you got the dough, or horses and a workbench, go for it. I can't afford to replace a sporran that nice as fast as I would wear it out on day wear duty.

I also agree with the concept of "like wearing a PC to the grocery store." How are you going to top that after 6PM?

I really like the economy of full mask sporrans, but one of my daughters has a problem with it, so I can't go there. I have also toyed with the idea of bringing in some of that long curly haired goat hide, Tibetan I think. Relatively less expensive than horsehair or fox fur, evocative of horsehair but easier to drive a car, still some room to step up the game for evening wear. Mongolian sheep? I forget, there was a recent thread about one.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Wow, Artificer, that one is really nice!

[CMcG]

<snip>
Who normally wears a horse-hair sporran, and in which circumstances? To me they're one of the most beautiful accessorries from which a tank can benefit.

My vintage horsehair sporran has a silver plated cantle and I only wear it for black tie formal occasions. The long hair seems to attract more attention than the kilt itself! I think they look awesome in the right circumstances but my lass is less convinced.

As for the leather cantle or brass cantle variety, I believe they are designed to be worn as daywear. They are, however, still very eye-catching... of the people who own them, I wonder how often they get worn?