I have a question regarding sporran materials. I was wondering if there are any historical references to sporrans being made of materials other than leather.

I have never seen, nor can I now locate, paintings or vintage photos of sporrans in other materials, but considering that a century ago having a picture taken was a special event one would dress up a bit, and paintings rarely show common folk doing common things in their everyday clothes I had to wonder what may have been recorded in writing or sketch but not on canvas or celluloid. Common sense says that the common man, and even the well-to-do, did not go around dressed to the nines all the time.

I also ask because I have made several sporrans out of ballistic nylon and cotton duck for daily use and for special purposes--more like tactical equipment that traditional sporrans in construction and style--and was thinking about doing a Rob Roy in duck. It just made me think about how often in history the common man has had to adapt materials at hand to serve a purpose and I began to wonder if the average highlander at some point might have used alternate materials in constructing sporrans for day-to-day use, labor, field work, etc.