Earliest use of brass-cantle sporrans?

[OC Richard]

I've never come acrosss sealskin sporrans until the mid-Cth19th at the eHaving seen the original portrait I have to disagree.

I think I've seen the original too... if it was at The National Portrait Gallery, or one of the castles... I can't recall. But in photos it's quite clear that it's sealskin. Nothing else looks remotely like mottled grey sealskin.

Anyhow here's an 18th century portrait which quite clearly shows sealskin, and I've seen the original many times, because it's here in Los Angeles! Yes the one in The National Museums Scotland is an unsigned copy, while the one in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) it the signed and dated original. (The copy is somewhat different, see the seperate thread "A Tale of Two Paintings".)

Here's the original, signed J. S. Copley 1780