Two sidenotes on this issue:Originally Posted by Tom0878Holly
About the badger mask sporran's connexion with the 93rd Foot:
I have in front of me a book Uniform of the Scottish Infantry 1740 to 1900 which has a painting with the following caption:
Black Watch 1790
The painting shows a soldier (probably a sergeant) wearing an animal mask sporran, not a badger however. It's interesting that in the formative years of regimental Highland Dress that not only the 93rd had Sergeants wearing animal mask sporrans.
There are numerous late 18th and early 19th century paintings showing civilians wearing badger mask sporrans, so it's clear that it never was a purely military style.
About North American v British badgers:
yes their faces look rather different. British badgers are black and white while North American ones are dark brown and beige.
When I visited sporranmaker Alexander Robertson at his home near Inverness in the 1980s he showed me a closet full of badger pelts which he could not use for sporrans due to a recently enacted law.
One result of this was the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders of Scotland apparently using North American badger sporrans (probably by L&M) sometimes. When the military band of the Argylls was here on tour in 1989 I noticed that one of the officers appeared to be wearing a North American badger sporran, and in other photos of groups of Argylls the odd North American badger face can sometimes be spotted.
Bookmarks