Quality Sporrans for less money

**OC Richard** · 1st July 20, 05:50 AM

For those in the USA who are interested in traditional sealskin Evening Dress sporrans, here's one that's on US soil already.

It's by W. E. Scott, Edinburgh. The design was called EW3 in their catalogue.

It's an exceptionally handsome sporran, in that they used two different colours of seal, dark grey for the front and a near-white for the gusset and tassels. The Cantle appears to be the older version made in 5 pieces, the main piece, the knob, and the three bosses. Some of the later ones cast the bosses as part of the Cantle, only the knob being separate.

The fur has some of those little moth-holes you see in some old seal sporrans. I don't know what else to call them, though I don't know what causes them, perhaps not moths.

The cantle and especially the bells need a good cleaning and polishing.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Sil...ndition=4%7C10

**OC Richard** · 1st July 20, 09:28 AM

There's also this hunting sporran in very dark brown leather and chrome top

https://www.ebay.com/itm/sporran-rea...p2056016.l4276

The listing states in two different places that it was made in the United States.

In a third place the seller states it was made in Scotland.

I messaged the seller asking 1) for confirmation as to where it was made and 2) if it's stamped Made In Scotland on the back.

The tooling/stamping on the targe isn't familiar to me. I do wonder who made it.

**OC Richard** · 10th July 20, 03:29 AM

When looking at vintage sporrans one thing to always be cautious of are child's size or youth's size sporrans either not described as such, or described incorrectly as "military" or "man's" or "gent's" sporrans.

Here's a beautiful vintage sporran, the style looks right out of the Victorian era. From the front it looks like it could be an adult sporran, and the seller provides no measurements to alert us otherwise. Happily the seller lets us see the back, where it's obvious that this is a youth's sporran. Also we can see that it closes with a popper meaning it's more recent than it looks, perhaps from the 1950s. (I messaged the seller asking to include measurements, and also advising how to spell "sporran".)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Kil...AAAOSwKjRfBzrx

The small size of the thistle badge on this one made me immediately suspect it was a youth's sporran. Luckily the seller provides the length, 14" which is indicative of a youth's sporran. A standard adult's horsehair sporran is 18" from the top of the cantle to the bottom of the hair. (It is true that for a period around the 1980s the Highland regiments issued Other Ranks odd short 14" horsehair sporrans, but these are easy to spot, and are an outlier.)

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Handmade-Wh...temCondition=4

Here's another youth's sporran with that distinctive small thistle badge. The seller provides the length, 15.5" which again indicates a youth's sporran.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Hor...temCondition=4

**OC Richard** · 18th July 20, 07:52 AM

Here's an interesting horsehair sporran.

I don't see a stamp, but it appears to be a high quality Scottish-made sporran.

I can't recall seeing that cantle design before.

What makes it nice is that it has an opening top and a large-capacity body. Anyone saying they can't carry enough stuff in their sporran, this is for them!

Though not stamped, and with a civilian cantle, it looks very much like some of the sporrans that Janet Eagleton made for the army.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/FINE-VINTAG...temCondition=4

**OC Richard** · 29th July 20, 10:04 AM

Here's another thing to be aware of when buying used sporrans if you don't like the smell of cigarettes.

You might buy a sporran with an intense smell.

I bought this sporran and sent it back to the seller.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-SCO...temCondition=4

It smelled so bad I had to put it, and the box it came in, out in the garage.

Happily the seller was cool with me getting a refund. His new listing has a warning about the smell.

I have no idea how to get a strong cigarette smell out of leather. A while back I bought a leather belt on Ebay and it had that powerful cigarette smell. I should have sent it back, but I thought I could get rid of the smell.

I couldn't. I tried washing the belt, which only made the smell more intense. Then I tried soaking it overnight. All I got was a bucket of stinky water, the belt smelled worse than ever. I tried putting some leather conditioning cream and it too only made the smell stronger. I finally just threw the belt away.

With that experience behind me, there was no way I could keep a sporran like that. I knew if I wore it my kilt would smell too.

**DougH** · 29th July 20, 10:34 AM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

Here's another thing to be aware of when buying used sporrans if you don't like the smell of cigarettes.

You might buy a sporran with an intense smell.

I bought this sporran and sent it back to the seller.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-SCO...temCondition=4

It smelled so bad I had to put it, and the box it came in, out in the garage.

Happily the seller was cool with me getting a refund. His new listing has a warning about the smell.

I have no idea how to get a strong cigarette smell out of leather. A while back I bought a leather belt on Ebay and it had that powerful cigarette smell. I should have sent it back, but I thought I could get rid of the smell.

I couldn't. I tried washing the belt, which only made the smell more intense. Then I tried soaking it overnight. All I got was a bucket of stinky water, the belt smelled worse than ever. I tried putting some leather conditioning cream and it too only made the smell stronger. I finally just threw the belt away.

With that experience behind me, there was no way I could keep a sporran like that. I knew if I wore it my kilt would smell too.

I made the same mistake with some computer parts... figured the smell wasn't to bad, plugged them, and boom - the whole room smelled.
Rather unfortunate in this case, that is a very pretty daywear sporran.

**Highland Logan** · 30th July 20, 02:18 AM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

Here's another thing to be aware of when buying used sporrans if you don't like the smell of cigarettes.

You might buy a sporran with an intense smell.

I bought this sporran and sent it back to the seller.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-SCO...temCondition=4

It smelled so bad I had to put it, and the box it came in, out in the garage.

Happily the seller was cool with me getting a refund. His new listing has a warning about the smell.

I have no idea how to get a strong cigarette smell out of leather. A while back I bought a leather belt on Ebay and it had that powerful cigarette smell. I should have sent it back, but I thought I could get rid of the smell.

I couldn't. I tried washing the belt, which only made the smell more intense. Then I tried soaking it overnight. All I got was a bucket of stinky water, the belt smelled worse than ever. I tried putting some leather conditioning cream and it too only made the smell stronger. I finally just threw the belt away.

With that experience behind me, there was no way I could keep a sporran like that. I knew if I wore it my kilt would smell too.

These methods work. All summed up in the link.

https://healthfully.com/how-to-remov...r-3420468.html

Frank

**OC Richard** · 30th July 20, 05:20 AM

Thanks!

I did some research online when I had the stinky belt, but I didn't see the baking soda or vinegar fixes.

I did do the leather-cream thing which didn't work.

Still, in the future I have to be more careful when buying sporrans on Ebay.

**OC Richard** · 1st August 20, 06:59 AM

Here's a nice EW4 Evening Dress sporran.

The seller says it's calfskin but the photo shows a sealskin sporran, I'm 99% sure.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NATURAL-CAL...temCondition=4

As you may know sealskin has a sheen to it, almost a metallic sheen in some light, that bovine lacks.

Actually the photo in that auction looks like it's cropped out of a larger photo, I can see tartan. I wonder if it was taken out of a catalogue or something.

**gun eagal** · 1st August 20, 10:02 AM

This epic thread is like a graduate course in sporrans. Thanks very much. I've learned quite a bit.
Here's a question I've had for a long time but it may be out of place here. I'm new to the forum, so please move it if necessary.
I've noticed a lot of sporrans that are made with pigskin, or cowhide stippled to look like pig skin. In leather bag making pigskin is most often used as a lining. On sporrans the pigskin is often laminated onto the back of a piece of cowhide for structure. Why is pigskin used so often? It's very tough, but kangaroo is tougher. Is pigskin just tradition? If so, how far back does the tradition go?
many thanks
John