Black Watch sporran with a story

[OC Richard]

“ glossy black synthetic leather ”: looks like plastic. I can’t imagine many being pleased to wear those ugly things. ��

I don't like that look either, but I think it was the army acknowledging that all the soldiers were "bulling" their brown sporrans with shoe-black, and with those shiny black plastic sporrans there's no shoe-black to rub off on their kilts.

Like the old days when soldiers pipe-clayed their buff leather belts white, and you'd see white rub off on their scarlet jackets. In modern times they just made the kit out of white vinyl.

What I would be interested in knowing is

1) when did soldiers start blacking their brown sporrans, and

2) when did the Scottish Highland regiments switch from their traditional brown leather No2 dress sporrans (which had a different pattern in each regiment) to those generic black vinyl ones.

Here in 1957 the Black Watch are still wearing their traditional pattern. Being it's a B&W photo we can't see if they're brown or black, but I've never seen one of this pattern sporran either made black, or bulled black.

(Note the Pipe Major's offwhite hose and pale puttees, as opposed to the khaki drab of the rest of the pipers.)