trad 'canon' of sporran styles

[RockyR]

HOW much were they charging for those sporrans back then?!?! Am I reading this right where the Full Mask sporrans (#'s 52 and 53) were roughly $6 (using the 1.65 Exchange rate of today) and the Hunting sporran (# 56) was $8?

[imrichmond]

HOW much were they charging for those sporrans back then?!?! Am I reading this right where the Full Mask sporrans (#'s 52 and 53) were roughly $6 (using the 1.65 Exchange rate of today) and the Hunting sporran (# 56) was $8?

I wasn't around in 1938, but I think you'll find that the UK pound was worth about US$5.00 or slightly more in the 1930s. Wages in the UK were very low, so the cost of the "Rob Roy" sporran, £2 10 (two pounds, ten shillings or 2.5 pounds), was equivalent to at least a week's wages for an average Scottish worker. My first kilt, a medium weight purchased in 1959 from Hugh MacPherson of Edinburgh, cost me CAN$40. That sounds incredibly cheap compared to today's prices, but it represented 4 weeks wages from my part-time job as a theatre usher. By the way, I'm wearing that kilt in my avatar.

[Guinach]

Just a quick question from a newbie,
(this seems like an appropriate thread)
What is the convention for day-sporrans versus evening-sporrans?
Color, amount of hair, intricacy of design on any metal?
Thanks,
Konn

[Downunder Kilt]

Brown leather = day
Brass cantle & brown leather = day
Black leather = day
Brass cantle & black leather = day
Hunting sporran, all leather = day
Full mask sporran = day or evening
Hunting sporran with white metal cantle = more formal day into evening
Full fur with white metal cantle = evening formal
Horse/Goat hair sporran = evening formal usually with a white metal cantle (those without a metal cantle have been known to be worn during the day)

There are those sporrans known as the semi formal that have a fur front and leather flap. I like Jock's use of the term neither fish nor fowl as the description of those sporrans

The above list is not a definative one by any means, merely a guide that can always be altered depending on circumstances

[OC Richard]

What is the convention for day-sporrans versus evening-sporrans?

In the pages of sporran designs I posted in the Original Post, you can see:

first and second pages: Evening Wear sporrans, bearing the EW designation.

third page: Day sporrans

fourth page: more Day sporrans and boy's sporrans

fifth page: mostly hybrid day/evening sporrans:
"DP" sporrans, ordinary Day sporrans but having the metal front plate from the Prince Charlie style Evening sporrans stuck onto the flap;
BT/SC, SH/EP, and SP/S, Day sporrans with fur front and having Evening style tassels
HS Hunting Sporran
SS an odd one, shaped like a Day sporran but made entirely out of fur!

I'll add this information to the OP to clarify.

As you can see from the vintage catalogues, these conventions were already in place by 1930.

As I've mentioned before, Highland Dress categories were rather looser in the 19th century but in the early 20th century became rigidly systematised/codified/categorised, with Day/Outdoor Dress and Evening Dress having dedicated shoes, hose, sporrans, and jackets. Even kilts are listed in those catalogues seperated by heavyweight kilts for Outdoor wear and lighterweight kilts for Evening wear.

[OC Richard]

HOW much were they charging for those sporrans back then?!?!

As mentioned before the Pound Sterling was worth a lot more vis-a-vis the US Dollar than it is today.

To put things in perspective I bought my first sporran in 1975, new, a plain Day sporran with three leather tassels (called 8GSP on the photo sheet in the original post above), handmade in Scotland by one of the leading sporranmakers of that time.

It cost $15.

At that time a friend worked a Summer job to pay for a set of pipes. He bought a brand new set of pipes mounted in engraved sterling silver and real ivory from Scotland's leading maker. It cost, as I recall, around $700.

I bought some 13oz kilting cloth at that time, from which my Grandmother made my first kilt. As I recall it cost around $20 a yard.

[OC Richard]

There are those sporrans known as the semi formal that have a fur front and leather flap that. I like Jock's use of the term neither fish nor fowl as the descrription of those sporrans

Thing is, those Day sporrans with the fur front seem to have always been with us, since the entire corpus of small pocketlike sporrans appeared at the beginning of the 20th century; see sporrans #11 and #13 in the Anderson 1936 catalogue.

In fact, the earliest photo I can find of our 20th century small pocketlike sporrans appears to show one of these "neither fish nor fowl" designs, in 1907