Interesting vintage sporran (Ebay find)

[OC Richard]

I was intrigued by this sporran that recently came up on Ebay, here are the auction photos:



I'm a veteran sporran-watcher and I was able to make educated guesses about some things.

Yet there were things that were puzzling.

First, the cantle. The "chased" design looked like the work of Frederick Narborough (Birmingham) 1850-1962 or Dalman & Narborough after 1962 due to a name change.

Their work is familiar to pipers because they provided silver bagpipe mounts to a number of different bagpipe makers.

The front of the cantle looked like an ordinary modern Evening Dress style.

However the back has a hinge mechanism sort of like the familar "Culloden" sporrans.

The back of the body looked oddly pale as if it had been pipeclayed.

The front of the body looked like it had the crude aftermarket addition of a rabbit pelt.

The cantle alone was enough to justify the $80 price, whether the cantle was nickel-silver or Sterling silver (FN and D&N made both).

So today the sporran arrived! And a couple of my guesses were right, a couple wrong.

Indeed the cantle was by FN, hallmarked Sterling Silver, quite lovely. The date stamp indicates 1967.

The construction of the cantle was new to me: it has the ordinary sort of front plate, with threaded posts for small hex-nuts, but there is also a second plate, a back plate, onto which is soldered the hinges. The leather is sandwiched in between these two plates.

The leather body, front and back, is supple natural buckskin. You can see where three tassels were originally attached to the front.

I was hoping that the rabbit fur would be merely basted in place. Sadly, the entire piece of fur is glued to the whole front of the buckskin sporran body. Thus the leather body is a total loss.

I've sent these photos to Margaret Morrison who I hope can make a new leather body for this lovely cantle.

[Tomo]

Great find - although the rabbit fur reminds me of a childhood pet.

I'm sure MM will come up with a new bag to do justice the cantle.

[Troglodyte]

Yours is the only other example of this type of cantle hinging I have seen, but the chasing seems almost identical to a Kinloch Anderson sporran I have -

DSCF9116a.jpg DSCF9124a.jpg DSCF9167a.jpg

Curiously, the rod-link hinged cantle is on a Forsyth's sporran of a similar construction to yours, and with nut-and-bolt attachment, but the KA sporran cantle is rivited and so not easily removed. Both cantles appear to be silver, but the lack of obvious hallmarks leads me to suspect they are only silver-plated. The KA sporran is also suede-lined.

[OC Richard]

Thanks for those photos!

The construction of the sporran at centre (Forsyth?) looks identical to mine:



What I wonder is, did Narborough make and sell the whole contraption as a set? Or did they just make the fascia tops?

Because when I removed the top I saw that it was of entirely normal construction, and could be directly bolted onto any ordinary sporran in the usual way.

Narborough could have produced and sold just the tops to all sporran makers (as they sold bagpipe mounts to all pipe makers) and as an option offered the hinge-mechanism add-on.

Just now I tore off the glued-on rabbit skin, so now we can get a better idea of what the sporran originally looked like: completely natural buckskin.



Here's a comparison of your D&N cantle, my new FN Sterling Silver cantle, and the FN/D&N nickel-silver cantle I used to own.

My old one combined their "Runic" with thistle, in this case done repousse.

My new one combines Celtic knotwork and their "Zoomorphic".

FN/D&N bagpipe mounts are seen in Thistle, Runic, and Zoomorphic, but I can't recall seeing a bagpipe where the mounts combined patterns as we see here in the sporran cantles.

[DunRovinStation]

I wish these old things could talk.
Although you all are giving them a long silenced voice for a start.
Facinating.

[Shinenotburn]

I too, have a sporran with this type of cantle. looks to be hand worked but there are no makers marks of any kind on the bag or the metal works. Perhaps the leather stitching on the back tells a story.

Any thoughts on this?

[ShaunMaxwell]

Great find and an interesting construction that I've not seen before. I'm curious to see what you come up with in the end!

I lucked into a sterling cantled sporran a few years ago for the princely sum of $32. The sealskin bag was moth eaten, but Donnie at Wyvern Leatherworks rebagged it for me using the hide/wool from an Icelandic sheep.



Keep us posted on the progress of your new sporran and thanks for sharing.

SM

[OC Richard]

I too, have a sporran with this type of cantle. Looks to be hand-worked but there are no maker's marks of any kind on the bag or the metalwork.

Though a tad different I think yours is by the same maker, Frederick Narborough Birmingham (after 1962 Dalman & Narborough).

They would make the same bagpipe mounts, buckles, sporran cantles etc in solid German Silver (nickel silver) either plain or silver-plated, and in Sterling Silver. As far as I have seen only the Sterling Silver mounts were hallmarked, the others having no marks at all.

They called it "chased" silver. It's not engraved, but stamped with various tools.

This is my concept for how I would like Margaret Morrison to re-bag that cantle (sorry for the crude mockup).

I think the balance of leather and silver is quite nice.

[Troglodyte]

Thanks for those photos!

The construction of the sporran at centre (Forsyth?) looks identical to mine:



What I wonder is, did Narborough make and sell the whole contraption as a set? Or did they just make the fascia tops?

Because when I removed the top I saw that it was of entirely normal construction, and could be directly bolted onto any ordinary sporran in the usual way.

Narborough could have produced and sold just the tops to all sporran makers (as they sold bagpipe mounts to all pipe makers) and as an option offered the hinge-mechanism add-on.

Just now I tore off the glued-on rabbit skin, so now we can get a better idea of what the sporran originally looked like: completely natural buckskin.



Here's a comparison of your D&N cantle, my new FN Sterling Silver cantle, and the FN/D&N nickel-silver cantle I used to own.

My old one combined their "Runic" with thistle, in this case done repousse.

My new one combines Celtic knotwork and their "Zoomorphic".

FN/D&N bagpipe mounts are seen in Thistle, Runic, and Zoomorphic, but I can't recall seeing a bagpipe where the mounts combined patterns as we see here in the sporran cantles.

Amongst other trades, Birmingham has for centuries been a gun-making and jewelry-producing centre - there is a 'jewelry quarter' with suppliers and manufacturers all crowded together.

It was at one time easy to find a jobbing engraver who would take on bespoke or short-run commissions in gun-engraving or silver-smithing.

Perhaps the sporran-makers could choose a-la-carte style the patterns and combinations of the cantle engravings, resulting in the mix-and-match our examples are showing.

And the engraving was not exensive. About 20 years ago, I had need of some getting some initials engraved on a pair of cuff-links and enquired at a 'traditional' jewelers. I was shown a style-card illustrating numerous options, but the engraving itself was priced at something like £5 per letter - a fairly plain and simple gift was transformed spectacularly.

[OC Richard]

Here are some examples of things by Frederick Narborough Birmingham.

As a piper I'm much more used to seeing their bagpipe fittings than anything else, but I'm now becoming aware that they did more "chased" sporran cantles than I had realised.