Evening Sporran styles

[OC Richard]

Starting, it seems, in the 1920s the small rounded seal-fur sporran with silver top began overtaking the traditional Victorian long white hair sporran with silver top, for Evening Dress.

William Elder Scott started a sporranmaking business in Edinburgh in 1937. I currently think that the numbering system used for many years by various makers and seen in a number of catalogues was created at some point by WE Scott & Son.

This numbering system makes a convenient shorthand for identifying and discussing many hundreds of sporrans made from the 1920s through today. The system is not entirely linear or logical! But here goes.

Evening Wear sporrans are designated EW followed by a number. The categories usually are defined by the cantle style.

EW1 refers to this cantle style. The sporrans were usually seal, and the cantle could be solid nickel, silverplate, or less often brass. I've included in this collage a Hunting Sporran (HS) using a brass version of the EW1 cantle.

Lower right is an unusual all-flat variant.



EW2 was this quite common cantle, which appears in some early catalogues.

It was seal, and generally had cones on the tassels.

The cantle was often silverplate, of very high quality, made in five separate pieces screwed together.

A lower-quality nickel or chrome-plated two-piece cantle is also seen.



EW3 was the pierced version of the EW2 cantle, often also silverplate in five pieces.

It's seen in nickel, silverplate, chrome-plated, and solid brass, in 5-piece and 2-piece versions.



EW4 is not entirely clear.

The designation appears to originally been to distinguish EW2 style sporrans made in white fur rather than grey seal.

EW4 also seems to have been used over the years for various furs like musquash, rabbit, mink, etc.

There was a fad in the 1950s and 1960s for artificial fur, not felt at that time to be inferior to real fur, it seems. These also were generally put under the EW4 umbrella.

EW4/A/T is the designation for the style with a leather targe. I believe this style to have emerged in the 1970s possibly for Kilt Hire. I've not seen any vintage EW4/A/T sporrans, only new ones.



EW5 is another style that goes back to the 1920s at least. The cantle has the ancient "bullseye" or "goddess-eye" motif and, yes, the sporrans generally have five tassels.

The cantle is seen in silverplate, nickel, and brass.

[OC Richard]

EW6 is sort of a catch-all for various styles, as if they were running out of numbers!

The one thing they have in common is a lunette to centre.

EW6/D has a diamond button placed on the cantle. (One would think there were enough diamond buttons already in the outfit, but evidently a need was felt for just one more.)

Once again this was a quality cantle in silverplate, but lesser-quality chrome versions later appeared.



EW6/G has a huge dome on the cantle.

Again a high-quality silverplate cantle, later seen in chrome.

The one lower left, in black and white rabbit, became a quite popular Pipe Band sporran.



There are several other EW6 styles

EW6/T Thistle
EW6/L Lozege
EW6/M (crowded panels of knotwork)
EW6/R (long open knotwork)
EW6/Z Zoomorphic

Here are some of them.

Upper row L-R:
EW6/L
EW6/M
EW6/R

Lower row L-R:
EW6/T cast variant
EW6/T flat variant
EW6/Z



EW7 is our familiar "Prince Charlie" style.

There were several variants

EW7/T Thistle
EW7/J knotwork
EW7/H open pentagonal frame with boss (sometimes missing, sometimes replaced with various badges)

There was also a variant with a blank shield which could be engraved to the customer's liking.



There's no EW8 in the old black & white WE Scott & Son catalogues, but one does appear here, upper centre



Likewise no EW9 appears in the old B&W WE Scott catalogues, and likewise it's in the photo above, bottom left.

The EW9 cantle is often seen on Nicoll Brothers sporrans.

Note that this cantle is more or less an EW2 cantle with the knotwork engraved onto a flat surface.

Upper right is an unusual pierced variant.

Lower left is a targe version. Also in the bottom row are two Hunting sporrans by Nicoll Brothers using the same cantle, in chrome and in brass. (The brass & brown leather one is owned by Gordon Walker, I can't find a better photo of it.)

[figheadair]

Richard,

An excellent summary of the range available from an individual manufacturer.

[piperalpha]

Well done Richard. This should be pinned.

I’m particularly fond of the EW7. I’ll be purchasing the next good vintage one I come across. The pipe I played in as a teenager wore them I know they’re not meant for daywear, but they sure look smart with a tweed jacket. The older version’s chain passes through the back of the sporran and is attached to the flap. Gravity make sure the flap doesn’t open.

[OC Richard]

Richard,

An excellent summary of the range available from an individual manufacturer.

That's the odd thing, in the 1980s I worked at a Highland Outfitter who carried WE Scott & Son sporrans.

Just in five years I worked there we received two or three price-lists from what appeared to be start-up sporranmakers (I think one of them stated as much) and they all included the same B&W trifold pamphlet that WE Scott & Son had sent us.

Interestingly that pamphlet had no prices and in fact no text whatsoever besides the designations of the various styles, giving us no clue who created the thing, or when.

I do believe that most, or all, of those cantles were made by Frederick Narborough/Dalman & Narborough, because some the styles are seen in various versions

-hand-chased sterling silver hallmarked FN or D&N
-cast sterling silver hallmarked FN or D&N
-hand-chased solid nickel-silver, left plain, or silverplated
-hand-chased solid brass, left plain
-cast solid nickel-silver, left plain, or silverplated
-cast solid brass, left plain, or nickel or chrome plated

It's even possible that FN/D&N produced that photo pamphlet to give to any sporranmaker using their hardware.

Even today Margaret Morrison (Scotland) and L&M Highland (Canada) use several of those same cantles.

Here's the L&M Evening sporran page. Back years ago they made the entire range I posted above, now as you see they've got in some new cantle styles too https://www.landmhighland.ca/products-page/full-dress/

Sporrans using those cantle styles are mass-produced in Pakistan as well.

The same situation existed with Highland pipemakers: at a given time there could be a half-dozen all making the same patterns of pipes and all using Frederick Narborough/Dalman & Narborough mounts in plain and chased nickel, and plain and chased hallmarked sterling silver.

[Wingnut037]

Recently purchased this rabbit sporran, and neat to know a bit more about it via this thread. Not sure on the age, but a nice variant from others I own.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/314358118433

Screenshot_20230220_090439_eBay~2.jpg