Quality Sporrans for less money

[OC Richard]

The majority of Pipe Bands the world over have worn this style of sporran since it came on the scene in the 1980s.

At typical Pipe Band contests in Scotland, for a quarter century now, all but a couple bands will be seen wearing these.

Most if not all the Scottish makers, and L&M in Canada, has offered these. Of course the Pakistani makers jumped on the bandwagon and copied these endlessly. There are untold thousands of these around the world.

But this (AFAIK) is the original, introduced around 1980 by WE Scott Edinburgh.

This is an older example, much nicer than they're making nowadays. I think only L&M is making ones this nice now.

$20 no bids.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/16664384904...tion=10%7C3000

The sporran is WE Scott's "hunting sporran" done up in black with the EW3 (pierced Celtic knot) Evening sporran cantle, in chrome, stuck on top (bottom row below). Why so popular? I think it has an appealing mix of bling and simplicity, and for Pipe Band use has the advantage of having no tassels to fall off.



Here's a modern pipe band, SFU, wearing them (these are probably by L&M).

[AmateurKiltsmen]

I saw a really nice Greenland sealskin sporran for sale on eBay last night but it way expensive, I can’t justify £100 for a sporran but I think it’s because they banned the use of sealskin? But lots of nice sporrans at all price points, think I saw a horsehair one for fifty quid.

I’m visiting the thrifts tomorrow so I’ll ask them if they have any sporrans for my kilt I’m getting.

[wcsgorilla]

Duplicate Post

[wcsgorilla]

The majority of Pipe Bands the world over have worn this style of sporran since it came on the scene in the 1980s.

At typical Pipe Band contests in Scotland, for a quarter century now, all but a couple bands will be seen wearing these.

Most if not all the Scottish makers, and L&M in Canada, has offered these. Of course the Pakistani makers jumped on the bandwagon and copied these endlessly. There are untold thousands of these around the world.

But this (AFAIK) is the original, introduced around 1980 by WE Scott Edinburgh.

This is an older example, much nicer than they're making nowadays. I think only L&M is making ones this nice now.

$20 no bids.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/16664384904...tion=10%7C3000

The sporran is WE Scott's "hunting sporran" done up in black with the EW3 (pierced Celtic knot) Evening sporran cantle, in chrome, stuck on top (bottom row below). Why so popular? I think it has an appealing mix of bling and simplicity, and for Pipe Band use has the advantage of having no tassels to fall off.



Here's a modern pipe band, SFU, wearing them (these are probably by L&M).

I just checked this out. I would have never thought something like this could be had for less that a Pakistani made thing..

[OC Richard]

Thanks, I didn't know about the UK banning seal hunting.

If they have, that might be why I see newer sporrans having a label that says "Made from Greenland seal".

Importing and selling seal skin has been illegal in the USA since 1972.

What was odd was when I visited a sporran maker near Inverness in 1986, and he showed me a pile of badger skins that he wasn't allowed to make sporrans out of.

He explained that badgers were a protected species in the UK, but seals were regarded more or less as pests.

It's odd because in the USA seals were a protected species, but badgers were regarded more or less as pests!

I did see around that time, and up until they were subsumed into the RRS, a number of soldiers in the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders wearing sporrans made from North American badgers, which look rather different to British badgers.

[Hauge]

Regarding Sealskin.
Iirc EU made a decision to ban trade with Sealskin. And yet. There was a exception. To protect the Greenland Inuit hunting traditions, and trade same, Greenland seal was accepted, if certified.
UK was under these restrictions, and i guess, still are..?
Something about exception, due to age, might also be a part of it.
I got a vintage semitrad Sealskin Sporran, from Scotland, about a year ago. Sent to Denmark, without any problems.

[Tomo]

The "ban" on sealskin has a bit of a torrid history over the last 20 years so - with various appeals and challenges - the upshot is an exception was made for Greenland sealskin (as mentioned above). However, the position is perhaps a little unclear since the UK left the EU - there has not been a bonfire of regulations and many aspects of EU law actually need to be repealed (i.e. presented to and voted for by parliament) rather than automatically ending.

So in another rather ironic twist - due to Brexit - it may be that sealskin sporrans remain lawful in the EU (provided they fall within the exception) but potentially not in the UK.

However, regardless of any uncertainty on the official position, the UK manufacturers and retailers are still happily selling sealskin sporrans - I guess they will continue to do so until someone tells them not to - and the secondhand market is thriving. £100 seams to be at the steep end for a used sporran (certainly as a starting bid). You will find used sporrans for as little as £15 but typically, I see then go for £50 to £75. For a new formal sporran, with sealskin, expect to pay £250 to £300, semi-formal ones start at about £150.

[OC Richard]

Thanks for that information!

The tangled Brexit mess! The gift that keeps on giving.

In the US the situation is, as far as I know, crystal clear: it's been illegal to import or sell seal products since 1972.

When this happened firms like WE Scott and Nicoll Brothers had to make special types of sporran for the US market using rabbit, bovine, or pony. Since I only started kiltwearing in 1975 this was the norm for me.

I was gobsmacked to walk into RG Hardie in Glasgow in 1986 and see an entire wall of seal sporrans. It hadn't dawned on me till then that seal was a common and inexpensive fur in Scotland. Someone told me that there were millions of seals teeming along the Scottish coast and they were more or less vermin.

Well before the US 1972 ban, way back in the 1950s, artificial fur became extremely fashionable (costing as much or more than real fur) and WE Scott starting using artificial fur on some of their higher-end sporrans, the ones with silverplate tops. This fur is offwhite (well it's offwhite now, who can say what colour it was when first made).

In any case in spite of the US ban, Pakistani seal sporrans are imported into the US and sold all the time. They're sometimes listed as "faux fur" but I bought one (quite cheap, around $30) and it proved to be real.

[Patty Logan]

no ofence to anybody but dose someone know how to turn off notifications for this post specifically and not everything? 100-ish posts of this is geting tiredsome

[kilted2000]

no ofence to anybody but dose someone know how to turn off notifications for this post specifically and not everything? 100-ish posts of this is geting tiredsome

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