Very sound advice, Anne! I would agree that a pelt from anything that old would probably fall apart the minute you tried to do anything with it. Get yourself a cheap sporran and take it apart to see if you really want to do all that work first.

I was given an old seal skin sporran, but the pelt was so bald I couldn't really wear it. The cantle screwed off very easily. I snipped the threads that held the pelt on and it fell off. It was glued on when it was new, but that had long since turned to dust. I used the old pelt to make a pattern for the new covering and it worked out fine. All I wanted to do was recover it. I really didn't want to dissect any further than that. A good friend had sent me a few furry bovine pelts so the timing was perfect. I used Gorilla Glue (sort of like Rubber Cement) to secure the pelt to the front and stitched the edges back down, screwed the cantle back on and I was pretty much done. I wasn't really sure how to recreate the tassels so I cut 3 dowel plugs that fit into the bells, covered them with the left over pelt, poked them threw to the inside and I was on my way. It wasn't really that difficult and I think it only took about 2 hours so if you've got the time and the wherewithal, you should be fine.

Good luck!