Royal Inspiration- I've Been Wanting To Make One Like This For A LONG Time!

[artificer]

I know I'm not alone in drooling over Prince Charles' Silver Cantle Day



I've been dying to make one for quite some time- and that time has just come.



It's not an exact replica of Prince Charles' (which originally belonged to Prince Henry the Duke of Gloucester)

Nor is it an exact replica of the Duke of Windsor's (which originally had five tassels)



I took the targe pattern from Prince Charles' and the SIZE of the targe from the Duke of Windsor's, along with the liner,
used the tassel configuration from Prince Charles' with tassels closer to the original length-

You can see in the picture below of the three young princes that both of their sporrans had much longer tassels originally.



I'd always assumed that the two sporrans were probably made at the same time, but in fact Windsor's was made in 1903 and Gloucester's was made two years later and by a different maker.

Odd stuff.

In any case, my version incorporates 105 total parts- 82 individually cut metal components (all the rivets were hand made, as nobody makes the proper size and metal, and I DON'T like bi-metal corrosion) in German Silver,
and 23 individual leather pieces.

It is now winging it's way off to a castle in the Scottish Highlands-

Along with this "Frankensporran" restoration



The cantle is silver plate on a base metal (probably brass) and was too delicate to do much polishing to,
The body was rescued from another of the commissioner's bags and recut to fit this cantle.
The tassels were made from the extra material, and I fashioned end caps to finish them off.

As always, helpful commentary and critique is most invited.
ith: