Traditional Sporrans Catalogue

**OC Richard** · 8th February 18, 09:23 AM

(Due to my cancelling my Photobucket account I will be recreating this old photo-heavy thread.)

Back when I first got into kiltwearing, in the mid-1970s, I got my hands on a couple Highland Dress catalogues, and I noticed that they used the same photos showing available sporrans styles. The sporrans were grouped on a number of pages, and each sporran had a curious code designation.

Then in the 1980s I began working at a Highland Outfitter who carried sporrans by William Scott & Son, Edinburgh, who provided us with a tri-fold photo-spread showing the styles they made... it was the same photos.

Later we were sent and/or acquired price lists from several other Scottish sporran makers all of whom sent us the same tri-fold photo-spread.

I would be most interested to find out who originally shot those photos, and when. I have been told that those same photos appeared in catalogues in the 1960s. Regardless of who or when, it was clear that that tri-fold of sporran styles represented the standard styles made by several makers, representing a canon of sorts.

In addition, most of those Scottish sporran makers didn't stamp their names on their products, rather, regardless of maker all the sporrans had an oval stamp on the back of the sporran which read Real Leather Made In Scotland.

Most of those same styles are still in production, by Scottish makers, L&M in Canada (keeping going the tradition of high-quality sporrans) and also in Pakistan (generally of much lower quality).

Here are the pages of that tri-fold photo-spread, with examples of the sporrans shown, some by William Scott & Son, Edinburgh, some by Nicoll Brothers, Bankfoot, and many others unknown.

The first page, Evening Dress sporrans (sealskin)

Here is EW1 with the cast relief cantle usually seen nowadays

Here's an older EW1, the cantle appears to be silverplate

Here's an old EW1 from Scott with a slightly different cantle

EW4 had a quality cantle made of four pieces, the cantle and the three bosses, all silverplate.

Here is a vintage EW4 with cones on the tassels

Here are examples of EW6G and EW4G, the "G" referring to the cantle with the huge boss:

EW4/5, having five tassels

This example has odd tassels which I've not seen elsewhere

Centre bottom is HS/T/B (which I believe means Hunting Sporran/Top/Black) here in brown. In black, with a chrome top, this has become the standard Pipe Band sporran the world over. Note this originally had the EW1 cantle; nowadays this sporran is usually made with the EW3 (pierced version of EW4) cantle.

**OC Richard** · 8th February 18, 09:54 AM

The second page, more Evening Dress sporrans:

Here is EW4/A/T ("T" in this case meaning "targe") by Scott. The addition of the leather targe from a Hunting sporran to an Evening Dress sporran has always struck me as a bit odd.

Here we take more steps in the direction of a Hunting sporran, the targe being brown leather, the metalwork brass, and the fur brown Musquash. A lovely sporran in my opinion, striking the eye as an extra-fancy Hunting sporran.

EW5, the ancient "bullseye" or "goddess-eye" design

Here with only three tassels, and matching buckle

EW6/D ("diamond", these diamond cantles were usually silverplated)

EW6/T ("thistle")

Now we come to all the "Prince Charlie" styles, called EW7, which had an interesting design:

Here's the most commonly seen, EW7/T (thistle) in a modern example, with a cast cantle-plate

An older example, more elegant, the cantle-plate cut out of sheet silver (or German Silver) then engraved

Another vintage example

EW7/J had a Celtic knotwork top. I wonder what "J" stood for.

And lastly EW7/H. Don't know what "H" stood for.

**OC Richard** · 8th February 18, 10:22 AM

Now we come to traditional Day sporrans. These two pages can be considered together, the second striking me as a continuation of the first, and adding child sporrans.

RR (Rob Roy) and HB (Highland Brigade) need no introduction.

A basic style, SM and 8GSP, with a popper flap closure, which is also seen above with sealskin front (STM/S). Not sure what the difference between STM/S and SH was. (In a later post I show the difference between SM and STM.)

Here is AZT/S (without fur called A2D)

AZSF1. What on earth could "AZSF" have stood for?

This and several below have concealed poppers.

AZSF2, adding studs.

AZSF3, which adds knotwork and studs to the body. This is an old, and particularly lovely, example.

My last AZSF example, AZSF/S with fur front, this example by Nicoll Bros Bankfoot

BF (see BF/S with seal front above). The motif is almost like the common ancient Goddess Eyes motif, but the circles have a sort of flower or sun-burst thing around them.

BT ("t" might stand for "targe"?) in brown

and in black

Like TT/S above, with two rows of tassels, but here having some studs:

GTSF

**OC Richard** · 8th February 18, 11:21 AM

On this page hybrid sporrans make their debut, traditional Day sporrans as above, but with bits from Evening sporrans stuck on:.

The sporrans in the top row look particularly make-do, being quite plain Day sporrans with the cantle-plates from "Prince Charlie" EW7 sporrans incongruously attached.

Further down are traditional Day sporrans with fur fronts (which had never been regarded as anything other than ordinary Day sporrans) with the tassels from Evening Dress sporrans replacing their usual leather tassels.

The most fascinating sporran to me, one which I have never seen in the flesh, is centre bottom, looking like a normal Day sporran but made entirely out of sealskin. Its tassels appear on a sealskin Evening sporran with the "G" cantle in the top post.

CBFS/D. I have no idea what those letters stand for. The version with leather tassels is LSA/S (L___ Saint Andrews/Seal probably).

BT/SC by Kinloch Anderson

HS (Hunting Sporran) a lovely old example by Glen

another example by Scott

**ASinclair** · 8th February 18, 11:34 AM

Thanks for re-posting this Richard!

**OC Richard** · 8th February 18, 11:47 AM

Thanks!

The last page, the Pipe Band sporrans and other accoutrements.

PS6" (Piper's Sporran, cantle full adult width 6 inches). Here is a nice vintage example. Sporrans like this have been in production since Victorian times.

The PT/CS (Piper's Sporran, Cast Top) has likewise been around since the 19th century, here is a very old example with more elegant cones and knob than is seen later

Note the buckles for the wide Piper's Dirk Belts come in two patterns, #355 and #102. These are only two of several patterns commonly made in the early 20th century. I don't know why these two survived (they are still in production) while several lovely old patterns were discarded.

Not just the waistbelt/dirk belt buckles, but the crossbelt hardware also came in #355 and #102. (One wonders where these numbers came from.)

Here's a comparison of modern and early crossbelt hardware in the #102 pattern. The old hardware is solid German Silver, the modern chrome-plated brass.