While browsing Ebay UK last week, I came across this sporran, incorrectly identified as a "sporan". The seller said it was circa 1900, the cantle was silver, the hair was molting and the back had been repaired. I put in a very modest bid, assuming that only the cantle and bells would be useable. Mine was the winning bid and here it is:





The seller's description appears to be most accurate. The blond goat hair (I think it is) is moulting at an alarming rate from its skin and the leather bag on the rear is brittle. The stitching appears to have been repaired with some expertise on one occasion and then with rather less skill on a second. In short, that lot is scrap.

However, the cantle if it is indeed silver, looks worth recycling. I plan to get it acid tested later in the week.

My first question for those of you with sporran knowledge is what approximate date do you think this cantle is? It appears to have had a hard life and this is probably not the first sporran that it has been attached to. In the photographs below you will see that it has been repaired using a different colour of solder and with less expertise. More tellingly, two of the four original brass mounting screws are missing (you can see where they were originally attached in the photographs) and have no corresponding holes in this sporran. These have been replaced by two copper spikes that with the two remaining brass screws held the cantle to this sporran. The central steel screw has also been soldered on later.








Any help with dating the cantle would be much appreciated because I suspect it is earlier that the sporran.

More questions later!