Earliest sporrans (circa 1710)

[OC Richard]

Thanks! Yes there are many similarities. (I don't suppose the angel was painted from life!)

I was just thinking about the number of old sporrans in museums that have what I suppose we think of as the classic "Culloden" or 18th century look, leather body with curved or angular brass hinged opening top.

It's been ages but as I recall I saw these at multiple museums in Scotland.

Does a sporran like that show up in the iconography? I just went through the paintings I have and I don't see one quite like that.

There are a couple of similar shape but with fur fronts and silver tops.

[figheadair]

Thanks! Yes there are many similarities. (I don't suppose the angel was painted from life!)

I was just thinking about the number of old sporrans in museums that have what I suppose we think of as the classic "Culloden" or 18th century look, leather body with curved or angular brass hinged opening top.

It's been ages but as I recall I saw these at multiple museums in Scotland.

Does a sporran like that show up in the iconography? I just went through the paintings I have and I don't see one quite like that.

There are a couple of similar shape but with fur fronts and silver tops.

Richard,

That's a very interesting observation. Bear in mind that there are relatively few pre-1750 portraits of men in Highland Dress. Several show pouch sporrans but in a number of others the sitter is wearing trews and no obvious sporran and/or is wearing a plaid is a toga-like style - a nod to Greco-Roman status which was fashionable during the Enlightenment period. Thus, a lack of evidence is not in itself evidence of a lack.

There are a couple of pre-1750 portraits I can think of the show brass cantles.

Firstly, Gregor MacGregor of Glengyle 1689-1777 which, given his dates and the style of clothing I'd have said is c.1740-50.



Sir James Macdonald, 1750. Only a part of the cantle can be seen but there is enough to suggest that was is a brass one.

[blackwatch70]

one more sporran, Alastair Grant Mor, the Castle Grant Champion (c.1714)

[figheadair]

one more sporran, Alastair Grant Mor, the Castle Grant Champion (c.1714)

Yes, we'll known and one of several of the time.

[blackwatch70]

some artifacts can be found here... but how old are they really?

https://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/...sporran-74027/

[OC Richard]

Yes a brass top to the Gregor MacGregor of Glengyle sporran, but not the plain leather body I mentioned.

If that MacDonald boy's sporran indeed has a brass top it might be The One.

About Sir Stuart Threipland, the painting depicts him being preserved from harm throughout the 1745-1746 rebellion (evidently by his Guardian Cherub) but when was it painted?

Certainly not in the period depicted, prior to him fleeing to France.

The painter, William Delacour, was doing portraits in Britain by 1752, was in Edinburgh in 1760, and died in 1767, which gives us a window.

In any case, if Sir Stuart kept his 1745 Highland costume into the 1750s and 1760s he could have donned it for the portrait, otherwise the artist might have been given reference materials (garments or paintings) to base the costume on. The costume does look a bit earlier than the time-window in which the painting could have been done.

In any case it's a great 18th century depiction of just the sort of sporran that survives in a museum, not a common thing.

About the Alastair Mor sporran, I've studied it and I can't make much sense of how the flap originally looked or how it was constructed. It almost seems to have this kind of flap decoration, but in its case a curved border and a circle or oval in the middle.