of Hunting sporrans

[OC Richard]

Just last night my Pipe Band issued me a sporran, in the typical Pipe Band style, a Hunting sporran in black leather with chrome top.

Additionally it has the laser-etched disc rivetted onto the front, which more and more Pipe Bands are getting.

Now I have three Hunting sporrans to hand, and I thought I'd share them, being so different from each other.

So here left to right

1) new Hunting sporran, 1930s style, by Margaret Morrison, two different brown leathers.

2) Hunting sporran by Nicoll Brothers, Bankfoot, black with nickel top, both the cantle and body were AFAIK unique to that firm. It possibly dates to the 1990s or so.

3) Hunting sporran by unknown maker, but in the more-or-less standard mid-to-late 20th century shape, as long made by W E Scott Edinburgh and L&M Highland in Nova Scotia.



It takes certain light to be able to see the engraving on the metal.



The rear view shows the various shapes a bit better. Note the squat round shape seen with Nicoll Bros sporrans, and the nearly straight-sided profile on the copy of vintage sporrans by Margaret Morrison.



When I say that the Margaret Morrison sporran is a 1930s style, here's why: it appears in old catalogues, here in the Rowan's 1938 catalogue



and in the Anderson's 1936 catalogue, both with and without studs.



By the way, these catalogues only offer leather sporrans in brown.

About the sporran on the right at top, a thoroughly modern Pipe Band sporran, the lineage goes back to the more-or-less standard Hunting sporran design as long made (and still made) by W E Scott (Edinburgh) and by L&M Highland (Nova Scotia) seen here in the traditional leather, pigskin or cow-hide treated to resemble pigskin, both with and without a brass cantle.

The cantle is a standard Evening Dress design, but done up in brass for the Day Dress leather sporran.



Brown Hunting sporrans with metal cantles have been around at least since 1900, here in 1909. I have no idea where or when the style originated.



At some point, I believe around 1970, with the Kilt Hire Industry taking off and a need for inexpensive sporrans which could be paired with black Prince Charlies, black leather Day sporrans began being made in large numbers, and elements of Evening Dress sporrans such as the silver cantles and silver cones and chains for the tassels, began being added. In any case it was just one step from the brown & brass metal-cantle Hunting sporran above to the black & nickel metal-cantle Hunting sporran below.

Various new hybrid sporrans appeared, combing the bodies of traditional Day Dress brown leather sporrans (but now done in black) with silver elements from Evening Dress sporrans, which were now dubbed "semi dress sporrans" a category which previously hadn't existed. (I'm talking about the sporrans made for and sold to people of normal means; of course at any time a wealthy member of the aristocracy could have any sort of sporran made.)

In any case note that the black & nickel sporran is now included on the page of Evening sporrans, which previously a leather sporran wouldn't have been. You can also see where it borrowed its cantle from.



For whatever reason this black leather + nickel top Hunting sporran, in the 1980s and 1990s, became enormously popular with Pipe Bands the world over. At a contest you could see a dozen bands in a row wearing them. Today shops sell these as "pipe band sporrans" so connected has the style become with pipe bands. Yet the style has no pipe band or military lineage at all, being an ordinary traditional brown-leather Hunting sporran which has undergone a makeover.

[KennethSime]

I was pretty sure I wanted my next sporran to be one of those vintage-style MM hunting sporrans. Then I found that WE Scott & Son makes one in Khaki Pigskin for about $100 less, so that was on the list. Now I'm thinking of one of those pipe-band sporrans (a hunting sporran with a metal cantle) because I picked up that P.C. and will need something formal.

Question: Of the three hunting sporrans, which do you like best, and why?

[OC Richard]

I was pretty sure I wanted my next sporran to be one of those vintage-style MM hunting sporrans. Then I found that WE Scott & Son makes one in Khaki Pigskin for about $100 less, so that was on the list.

Of the two I myself prefer the 1930s style Margaret Morrison Hunting sporran, though the other style (made by Scott & Son and also by L&M) are very nice too.

Now I'm thinking of one of those pipe-band sporrans (a hunting sporran with a metal cantle) because I picked up that P.C. and will need something formal.

To me those hybrid sporrans (traditional brown leather sporrans done in black, with added shiny silver elements) don't look right with the Prince Charlie because the PC is an Evening jacket which traditionally has called for an Evening sporran.

Yes I know it all began changing in the 1970s and 1980s due to Kilt Hire, but it will never look quite right to me.

Of the three hunting sporrans, which do you like best, and why?

For sure the Morrison brown one! One, because it's an extremely well-made and beautiful sporran, and two, because it's the only one of the three that looks proper to me for wear with tweed Day Dress.

I picked up the Nicoll Bros black & nickel one because I had to wear it in the pipe band. The middle one was issued to me by my new band, I have no choice in the matter. I'm not a fan of the big laser-etched disc.

Playing with my old pipe band wearing the Nicoll Bros sporran. We wear black waistcoats and that style sporran like most bands do.



But for my tweed Day Dress it's the brown leather vintage-looking Morrison for sure.



The new band sporran with the disc is for this band



By the way, the disc thing is kind of strange. I was at the 2004 World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow and I saw a couple bands wearing cap-badges which were nothing but a silver-coloured metal disc with laser etching on it, with the band's logo.

Then I saw it in the programme: an advert for Remico Nameplates Ltd selling "low cost personalised engraving for Pipe Band products".

And sure enough band after band started getting cap bands and sporran discs from that firm.

It was the perfect marriage between commonly available low-cost manufacturing and Pipe Bands wanting custom badges.

[Tomo]

The MM sporran stands out for me. Looks great.

[figheadair]

Is it me or were the 1930's sporrans slightly more oval? Here's my Andersons' one (No 17) in the catalogue.

Andersons' Sporrans.jpg Sporran - Anderson's c1930-Front-sm.jpg

[Micrographia]

That Margaret Morrison sporran is lovely .

[OC Richard]

Is it me or were the 1930's sporrans slightly more oval? Here's my Andersons' one (No 17) in the catalogue.

Andersons' Sporrans.jpg Sporran - Anderson's c1930-Front-sm.jpg

For sure the one you show is the a bit more like the shape that eventually won out, more oval, which could be drawn as a circle sitting atop a slightly larger circle.

What draws my eye is #16 and #17, the style that Margaret Morrison has put back into production, which at first glance is straight-sided but is also a smaller circle atop a larger one, but the two circles are much closer in size.

Then there's the Nicoll Bros style, which has those two circles closer together.

[OC Richard]

About where Hunting sporrans came from, the more I look at existing old sporrans and old photos of men wearing them the more I think that the modern "day" and "evening" sporrans (which arose around the time of The Great War) are possibly both descended from the ornate Celtic Revival quasi-18th century sporrans of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods.

Here's the style. Things that strike me are 1) that only a small number of these show up 2) they tend to be similar to each other and 3) when made they seem to have been the provenance of the wealthy: Royalty, aristocracy, and others of exceptional wealth such as Sir Harry Lauder. Long after they were made some have continued to be worn in those families, some have ended up with persons such as famous piper John Burgess, well known for his lavish spending on ornate costumes.



Here are closeups of some sporrans of that style. Note Sir Harry's has a square top, while other examples have semicircular tops.



Also evidently inspired by 18th century sporrans are this sort, also late Victorian/Edwardian, which I believe evolved into the standard Evening sporrans of the 1920s which we still wear today.



Not a tremendous leap from those to the standard Evening sporrans, simplified for those of more ordinary means, being produced in larger quantities in the 1930s



About Hunting sporrans, I think the ones being made in quantity for the average kilt-wearer (below right, 1930s) are more or less highly simplified versions of the ornate Revival ones at top.

Note the early appearance of the Rob Roy, another 18th century revival. Also seen are the animal mask sporrans, which throughout the Victorian period were pretty much the only Outdoor Dress alternative to the near-ubiquitous long hair sporrans.



Note that in the post-Great War period pocketlike sporrans complete with flaps become popular. This style came to dominate leather "Day" sporrans but also appeared in Evening form in the so-called "Prince Charlie" seal sporran, seen above.

I think the appearance of the pocket-style sporrans might be connected to the military's adoption of a khaki-drab Service Dress in 1908.

[figheadair]

About where Hunting sporrans came from, the more I look at existing old sporrans and old photos of men wearing them the more I think that the modern "day" and "evening" sporrans (which arose around the time of The Great War) are possibly both descended from the ornate Celtic Revival quasi-18th century sporrans of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods.

Here's the style. Things that strike me are 1) that only a small number of these show up 2) they tend to be similar to each other and 3) when made they seem to have been the provenance of the wealthy: Royalty, aristocracy, and others of exceptional wealth such as Sir Harry Lauder. Long after they were made some have continued to be worn in those families, some have ended up with persons such as famous piper John Burgess, well known for his lavish spending on ornate costumes.

Richard, I think you are spot of with your analysis of the origin of the modern styles and the fact that those lovely Celtic Revival sporrans were, or certainly are now, few and far between.

Here are the only three I know of made by Ferguson & MacBean, Inverness c1890-96. Each is unique, the first is the one owned by Sir Harry Lauder (I don't know who owns it now), the middle one in mine, I know who owns the one of the right.

Ferguson & MacBean Sporrans 1890s.jpg

[OC Richard]

Thanks so much for the information and insight!

I suspected that due to the rarity, cost, and similarities between them that they might be the work of a single firm, or at most a small number of firms.

Do you know how many of these Ferguson & MacBean might have made? Did they made round-top ones as well as square-top?

There's a well-known photograph of the four Princes wearing theirs, are the ones in the Royal family also by that firm?

Now that I look at the photo I see that only two of the four are that ornate style, one is rather less fancy, one is plain.



In any case there are late Victorian sporrans that sit sort of halfway between what would become Evening and Hunting sporrans, like this one hallmarked Robert & Henry Bruce Kirkwood Edinburgh (c1882-1900)



and this rather plain proto-Hunting sporran hallmarked Robertson 1893 (probably Robert & George Brunton Robertson, Cupar, 1857-1917)