New bespoke Margaret Morrison sporran

**OC Richard** · 30th March 22, 05:35 AM

I while back I picked up, fairly cheaply, a ratty-looking old sporran on Ebay that had a promising-looking cantle.

Because it looked like a hand-chased cantle from Frederick Narborough, Birmingham.

Here's how the sporran looked in the Ebay listing. It looked like an aftermarket rabbit skin had been glued on top of the leather:

When the sporran arrived it proved to be even better than that! A hallmarked Sterling Silver cantle by that firm.

My first step was to peel off the rabbit skin. The sporran had originally been lovely soft buff leather, almost certainly with matching buff leather tassels.

Here, sporran 059 shows more or less what this sporran originally would have looked like.

The sporran deserved a new bag, so I sent it to Margaret Morrison, the firm who I think makes the finest sporrans being made today.

I considered staying with buff leather, but decided to go with a Hunting Sporran look.

I asked for brown antique-looking leather. I noticed that MM had some Hunting sporrans with silver accents on the leather tassels and I asked for those.

The result is fantastic.

**Father Bill** · 30th March 22, 06:24 AM

An absolute thing of beauty to be cherished and worn with pride. Well done, Laddie!

**imbrius** · 30th March 22, 06:39 AM

Quite beautiful! Very nice work from MM!

**MacKenzie** · 30th March 22, 09:18 AM

Very nice!

**KennethSime** · 30th March 22, 10:21 AM

Excellent. Looks like a very nice vintage piece.

**OC Richard** · 7th April 22, 04:34 AM

Thanks everyone!

It arrived quickly. Here it is with my ordinary Margaret Morrison hunting sporran.

The leather is supple and has a cool antique look close up. Due to the bag being suspended front and rear the leather doesn't have to be stiff enough to support itself as on most sporrans.

I can't find any stamp on it. The only markings are the Silver Maker's Mark and Date Letter on the cantle (Frederick Narborough 1967)

It will get its debut this weekend at the Las Vegas Highland Games.

**OC Richard** · 25th April 22, 01:15 PM

Finally a photo of it being worn:

and some photos I took of the sporran. Odd that Margaret Morrison didn't stamp the leather.

You can see the cantle's hallmarks including FN (Frederick Narborough, Birmingham) and the date letter for 1967.

(The photos in the post at top, with the RRS tartan background, were sent to me by MM before they shipped it.)