17th Century Style Sporrans

[OC Richard]

Too bad we can't see the top of John Campbell's sporran.

But the other images show us remarkable consistency of sporran design in the early 18th century. They appear to be deerskin.

We can only go back as early as the evidence we have allows, and past that we really don't know, though it's a fairly safe guess that the earliest things we see can be used as a guide to yet-earlier forms.

It's like that with bagpipes. The earliest clear image he have of the Great Highland pipe is The Piper To The Laird Grant in 1714.

We have a number of early-looking sets of pipes in museums but none have much in the way of provenance. The only early-looking set that has a date on it was shown to be a fake in the spirit of the Vestiarium Scoticum.

The style of turnery seen in The Piper To The Laird Grant's pipes and in other presumably early sets is remarkably similar to that seen with old Spanish and Breton pipes, giving us a fair idea of what Highland pipes prior to 1714 might have looked like.