Quality Sporrans for less money

[OC Richard]

This is exceedingly strange!

https://www.ebay.com/itm/16483131265...ndition=4%7C10

It's common on Ebay to see vintage sporrans with goofy aftermarket alterations. It can be an entertaining exercise to try to figure out what a sporran might have originally been, and what was done to it by some previous owner.

This is a Nicoll Brothers horsehair sporran.

First off you can see that it's in practically new condition.

Notice that it originally had tassels, now missing.

Oddest of all is the leather front. I've not seen one like that from Nicoll Bros or anyone else. Had it been original to the sporran the brown leather would almost certainly had some shape to it, and certainly had a finished bottom edge, probably with a row of stitching, or a groove going along the edge.

If you look closely, where the brown leather goes under the rim, you can see the leather is a bit uneven and rough.

Obviously something looking like that wouldn't have been done in the Nicoll Bros shop.

Almost certainly the sporran would have looked something like this originally (though this one is in less-than-pristine condition, with smashed cones)