Antique Brass Cantle Sporran Restoration Project

[artificer]

Very nice sporran! I'm jealous!

Looking at the back of the bag, and the fact that the sporran cantle seems to be easily removed by means of the wires holding the bag to the cantle, I'd suggest that the bag was made to be reversible.

The two holes remind me of similar holes I have seen on the front of MOD and other sporrans where a badge would be affixed.

I think the bag may have been made so that you could wear it on way for tassels, and the other way to display a badge. Neat idea!

Excellent critique of the sporran as you received it Scott. I have seen photos of the sporran before, but yours are far more illuminating. I will be following this thread with great intrest to see the final outcome.

Matt re your thoughts on the bag being reversable, I thought the same thing when I saw pics of the sporran 18 months ago.

Unfortunately the hoops don't line up front and back. When I originally saw the back of the bag I also assumed that the bag had been/could be reversed.

ith:

[davidlpope]

Unfortunately the hoops don't line up front and back. When I originally saw the back of the bag I also assumed that the bag had been/could be reversed.

ith:

I suspect the holes in the rear of the bag were for a small drawstring connected to a small pouch on the inside of the back face of the sporran. My otter sporran is constructed this way with the same decorative stamping on the back.

David

[artificer]

I suspect the holes in the rear of the bag were for a small drawstring connected to a small pouch on the inside of the back face of the sporran. My otter sporran is constructed this way with the same decorative stamping on the back.

David

Very interesting, David. If you have a photo of yours I'd be quite interested in seeing it.

On this one the decorative stamping actually helps conceal a very thin line of stitches, which secures a small pocket (through which the holes are also punched).



You can just see the top edge of the pocket in the below shot:


The stitching is coming away and the top edge is curling inward on itself.

ith: