Old Hairy Sporran

[macmac]

Hi found this very old Sporran , don't think the tassels are original to the sporran
better with or without ?? Also anyone have any idea of the age Please

[jhockin]

Does the cantle open? If so, perhaps photos of the inside might help?

[macmac]

the cantle is a fixed one with just the leather pouch

[Alisdair]

That's a beauty! For what it's worth, in my opinion, the tassles (or at least tassle cones) are later add-ons, which don't seem consistent with the original cantle. If you can't find some white metal ones, maybe leather tassle cones would look nice.

[macmac]

Thanks Alisdair , I will need to find some and two fixing for the cantle ( if anyone can tell me what to ask for would help )
Thanks

[OC Richard]

A very nice old sporran there. The method of construction of the cantle, fabricated out of sheet metal (usually German Silver), then engraved, was the standard from around the mid-19th century up through the early 20th century. It's what makes these things so hard to date: a sporran made in 1860 might be identical to one made in 1920.

Our modern horse hair sporrans appeared around the 1840s and haven't significantly changed since. So we look at the construction of the cantle and hints from the leatherwork etc.

One thing is to measure how wide the cantle is at the widest point. Early on, from c1840 to c1870, many horsehair sporran cantles were 7 inches wide or so, while later in the 19th century they more or less settled down to a standard of around 6 inches wide, which became the standard width around 1900. Less than 6 inches nearly always indicates a "youth" or "child" sporran.

The most interesting thing to me are the tassels, which were lifted from an Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders sporran. Note that there are six, but only two are attached to the sporran, the other tassels are crudely attached to each other, which is certainly not the way any sporran would have been made.

If I were you I would remove those tassels (they don't belong to the sporran) and store them away. They're quite valuable, because old Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders sporrans come up from time to time missing their tassels, and your tassels could be used to complete the old military sporran.

Your sporran would have come with two long tassels, probably black, in sheet-metal German Silver cones. I think I have a vintage pair of tassels like that, I could just give them to you if you want them. Let me check.

Here's where your tassels were lifted from, and where they belong: on an Officer's/Sergeant's sporran from the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. The cones are unique and distinctive. You might be able to sell the tassels, being in excellent condition as they are, and quite rare, for several hundred dollars, to a military sporran collector.



Here's a vintage sporran somewhat similar to yours showing the sort of tassels your sporran would have originally come with. this example is a "youth's" sporran.