very cool Artificer! I'd not noticed that hunting sporrans have five tassels as a rule, and in a single row.
With the long hair Army sporrans it was either five or six, but in two rows.
I do wonder when hunting sporrans evolved. They don't show up in The Highlanders of Scotland and as I recall they don't show up in photographs until about the same time as all the other small pocketlike sporrans appear, around 1900. I'll have to browse through my old photos and see what I can see.
I wonder about possible connexions between hunting sporrans and 18th century style sporrans. These appear to be more or less reproduction 18th century sporrans with added tooled targe, and tassels. Switch to a leather cantle and vestigial tassel-flaps and Bob's your Uncle.
The fascinating outlier in THOS is this sporran. Was it a vintage sporran when the portrait was done? Does it date to the mid 18th century? Not farfetched, because I wear a 100 year old sporran all the time.
There's the brass cantle and the five tassels in a single row. But no targe, and as you see extra tassels scattered below the five-tassel row.
Bookmarks