Vintage thong-through-flap sporrans

[Troglodyte]

The splendid vintage thong-through-flap sporran that Figheadair recently posted about is a real beauty, and a century of patina only adds to its appeal. His pictures show how wonderful it looks 'in action'.

The style obviously won Royal approval, as pictures from the inter-war era of the princes a-kilted show us. So why has the style fallen out of favour?

My little line-up shows a couple of other 'style-cousins' of thong-through-flap designs of the same era, alongside another from maybe a couple of decades later. Gone is the thong-through closure, replaced by simpler tassels and press-stud, but elements of the old style remain.

Fancy 'day-wear' sporrans clearly still had a market immediately post-war, as the fourth sporran shows, with its decorative blind-tooling and elaborate tassel construction. This must have taken many hours to make by a skilled artisan.

The construction of sporrans from this mid-20th century period is quite sophisticated - much more akin to hand-made shoes than simple bags - with careful choice of linings and decorative tooling at the rear that only the wearer could enjoy.

But the multi-stage construction probably became non-viable, as the amount of fiddly elements that are only realised on close inspection make me suspect they were an early victim of time-and-motion savings. Which is understandable, but it would be nice to see a revival of these old styles.

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