My (expanding Sporran Collection

[Allan Thomson]

OC Richard regarding your question about 'Culloden Style' Cantle maybe a functional cantle might be a better term, I simply used 'Culloden Style' as it's the most common type of working Cantle about and a lot of Cantles about are mock examples. As far as I consider the term 'Culloden cantle' referred to the pattern used by the Black Watch which is so popular now, and was the style of my Father's Sporran at the time I inherited my first kilt, I was given the Canadian one with the leather flap, but always aspired to own one with a working cantle.

It is quite difficult to work out the history of working Cantles vs mock cantles as I used to have the impression it was a case of working ones being older than fakes and then fakes coming in more recently but obviously looking at the sporrans I have 'fake cantles' have a longer history than I first thought.

I did consider perhaps it was a case of Fakes being the cheaper option than the genuine working type. Certainly now it seems like getting a working cantle on a modern sporran is nigh in impossible except for Antique rebagged stock (goes at a premium), Inherited or 2nd hand items (rare and expensive unless you are lucky as in my case), or reproduction or commissioned one offs (again expensive).

In this case the pins and hinges are concealed not showing.

[ShaunMaxwell]

[QUOTE=did consider perhaps it was a case of Fakes being the cheaper option than the genuine working type. Certainly now it seems like getting a working cantle on a modern sporran is nigh in impossible except for Antique rebagged stock (goes at a premium), Inherited or 2nd hand items (rare and expensive unless you are lucky as in my case), or reproduction or commissioned one offs (again expensive).[/QUOTE]

There are some Pakistani sporrans being sold on eBay now with working hinged brass cantles that can be had for the price of an MOD Culloden cantle. I already have a couple, or I might be tempted …

https://ebay.us/m/QIQhxj

https://ebay.us/m/ao0TK7

I’m not crazy about the finish on the brass, but some might be interested.

Cheers,

SM

[OC Richard]

It is quite difficult to work out the history of working Cantles vs mock cantles as I used to have the impression it was a case of working ones being older than fakes and then fakes coming in more recently but obviously looking at the sporrans I have 'fake cantles' have a longer history than I first thought.

Yes the history is a bit convoluted.

At the start of the 18th century, when we get our first clear looks at sporrans, they're a simple leather poke with drawstring top and flap closure.

By the middle of the 18th century sporrans have acquired the metal hinged opening top. Paintings of the time show silver tops and sealskin bodies. There are several old-looking sporrans in museums with brass tops and deerskin bodies, however these cannot be dated with any certainty and don't unequivocally appear in period paintings AFAIK.

By around 1800 sporrans had evolved into quite different things: big square pouches of long goat-hair with either leather or matching hair flap openings. Soon the flaps acquired decorative plates, japanned leather with metal rim and oftentimes metal badges.

These, in turn, by around 1840 had evolved into our familiar long goathair (later horsehair) sporrans with leather or metal cantles which are still with us today especially in the military.

So hinged metal tops had died out by around 1800, but they were revived beginning AFAIK starting around 1880. These "revival" sporrans were loosely based on mid-18th century sporrans but were far more ornate and elaborate, covered with Celtic-knot tooling and studs, having numerous knobs and tassels, and the metal top often being richly engraved silver.

These revival sporrans appear to have declined in popularity especially around World War One after which Highland Dress became greatly simplified.

Hinged tops did continue to be offered throughout the interwar period but weren't nearly as popular as the ordinary nonfunctional cantle type, possibly due to expense. They were made both with exposed side knobs and with the hinge completely hidden.

Then in 1953 the mid-18th century hinged cantle was revived once more, becoming the general issue sporran for all ranks in all of the kilted Scottish Scottish regiments. The body was rough plain leather which the soldiers had to put that horrid Blanco on. These sporrans are often called "Culloden" sporrans (I'm guessing there's a hinged brass cantle leather sporran in a museum somewhere that was supposedly worn at that battle).

The last chapter is that these "Culloden" brass cantles are currently undergoing a big revival themselves. Those old 1953 sporrans used to be dirt cheap (when the regiments dropped them in the 1960s nobody wanted them) but now they're getting scarce and expensive, and as one might expect Pakistani makers are exploiting the shortage with inexpensive knockoffs.

I threw together this showing an original and the two major revivals

[OC Richard]

the term 'Culloden cantle' referred to the pattern used by the Black Watch

These?

About the Canadian military I don't know, but in the British army these were issued in 1953 as part of an entirely new "Coronation Dress" AKA "Number One Dress" for the 6 kilted regiments.

The new items were a dark blue Balmoral, Archer Green coatee, and "Culloden" sporran as you see here worn by the Black Watch of Scotland. (Both the bonnet and coatee are quite dark and are often mistaken for black.)

In the British army this dress was issued to The Black Watch, the Seaforth Highlanders, the Cameron Highlanders, the Gordon Highlanders, the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders, and the Highland Light Infantry (who had acquired kilts just a few years prior).



This costume was, from the standpoint of uniform history, strange.

Combining a mid-18th century sporran and bonnet with a 19th century coatee made no sense, and it didn't last long. The Culloden sporrans were replaced by horsehair ones in 1968, and the coatees were replaced by Archer Green doublets in 1981.