The simple answer would be that in the old days sporran leather wasn't coloured at all- it was the colour the leather naturally was.
Sporrans made of cowhide were brown, of pigskin a sort of ginger, deerskin buff, and so forth.
When leather was coloured it would be in the range of natural-looking colours (though in truth I don't know how "natural" the quite dark brown that used to be popular was).
Even as late as the 1960s these are your choices
Black leather sporrans don't appear until around 1980, often the newly-invented "semi dress" style, created specifically as part of a Kilt Hire package which included a black Prince Charlie and black Ghillies.
I've illustrated that process:
Being that I'm really only interested in pre-Kilt Hire Highland Dress, the idea of coloured sporrans doesn't appeal to me.
Last edited by OC Richard; 17th July 25 at 07:03 AM.
Proud Mountaineer from the Highlands of West Virginia; son of the Revolution and Civil War; first Europeans on the Guyandotte
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