What's the idea of the Sporran Tassels

[artificer]

Interestingly enough, there is one style of sporran which almost always has five and only five tassels (or tassel-like appendages, they could be petals or 'pennants')- that is the Hunting Sporran.

Whether it is the older style with a semi-soft body and metal cantle (hinged or fixed) or the newer style constructed of hard front and rear panels, practically every hunting style sporran I've ever seen originally has/had five tassels.

Here's a modern style Hunter done by L&M:


Here are a few I've done in the old style:


detail shot of same


A 'matched set' from last year


And a piece modeled on the sporrans originally worn by the Dukes of Windsor and Gloucester.


ith:

[Liam]

Interestingly enough, there is one style of sporran which almost always has five and only five tassels (or tassel-like appendages, they could be petals or 'pennants')- that is the Hunting Sporran.

Whether it is the older style with a semi-soft body and metal cantle (hinged or fixed) or the newer style constructed of hard front and rear panels, practically every hunting style sporran I've ever seen originally has/had five tassels.

Here's a modern style Hunter done by L&M:


Here are a few I've done in the old style:


detail shot of same


A 'matched set' from last year


And a piece modeled on the sporrans originally worn by the Dukes of Windsor and Gloucester.


ith:

Sorry Scott, I've just drooled all over my key board!

[Farmer Jones]

As a follow-on to TheScot’s post, it's actually just grizzly bears to be aware of. People should learn to recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear scat. Black bear droppings are smaller and often contain berries, leaves, and possibly bits of fur. Grizzly bear droppings tend to additionally contain small bells on leather thongs and smell of pepper.

I have just scanned the two most important Canadian Wildlife identification hand books. Both "What scat is that", and "Whose pooh In Canada" agree that on occasions, bells have been found in very large black bear scats, along with strips of scout merit badges.

[OC Richard]

very cool Artificer! I'd not noticed that hunting sporrans have five tassels as a rule, and in a single row.

With the long hair Army sporrans it was either five or six, but in two rows.

I do wonder when hunting sporrans evolved. They don't show up in The Highlanders of Scotland and as I recall they don't show up in photographs until about the same time as all the other small pocketlike sporrans appear, around 1900. I'll have to browse through my old photos and see what I can see.

I wonder about possible connexions between hunting sporrans and 18th century style sporrans. These appear to be more or less reproduction 18th century sporrans with added tooled targe, and tassels. Switch to a leather cantle and vestigial tassel-flaps and Bob's your Uncle.





The fascinating outlier in THOS is this sporran. Was it a vintage sporran when the portrait was done? Does it date to the mid 18th century? Not farfetched, because I wear a 100 year old sporran all the time.

There's the brass cantle and the five tassels in a single row. But no targe, and as you see extra tassels scattered below the five-tassel row.

[Ron Abbott]

Interesting also that he's wearing ghillie brogues.
I've seen other photos of him wearing them, but how often do you see the current royals wearing them?

Likewise the dicing on his hose.
Looks as though it came straight from a glengarry.
Haven't seen dicing like that on hose before. Then again maybe it just looks that way because of the photo quality and the fact that in my own mind it's red, white and black!

[artificer]

very cool Artificer! I'd not noticed that hunting sporrans have five tassels as a rule, and in a single row.

With the long hair Army sporrans it was either five or six, but in two rows.

I do wonder when hunting sporrans evolved. They don't show up in The Highlanders of Scotland and as I recall they don't show up in photographs until about the same time as all the other small pocketlike sporrans appear, around 1900. I'll have to browse through my old photos and see what I can see.

I wonder about possible connexions between hunting sporrans and 18th century style sporrans. These appear to be more or less reproduction 18th century sporrans with added tooled targe, and tassels. Switch to a leather cantle and vestigial tassel-flaps and Bob's your Uncle.





The fascinating outlier in THOS is this sporran. Was it a vintage sporran when the portrait was done? Does it date to the mid 18th century? Not farfetched, because I wear a 100 year old sporran all the time.

There's the brass cantle and the five tassels in a single row. But no targe, and as you see extra tassels scattered below the five-tassel row.

In Delia Millar's notes in THoS she makes mention of that sporran, and how it is unusual due to it's antique nature:
"...The Claymore, the Sporran and Target (targe) worn by Angus Colquhoun are some of the old Clan accoutrements preserved at Rossdhu, and lent to him for the occasion." (having his portrait painted by MacLeay)

In the front notes it is mentioned that Cloquhoun's sporran has "an eighteenth century top", which presumably means the cantle.

As to the when and how of the hunting sporran evolution my guess is pretty similar to yours.

As you said, there seems to be an explosion of this style right around 1900, and I wonder if the fashion wasn't given a boost by the young princes?

It seems odd how an entirely new style of sporran (small leather body) sort of explodes onto the scene, seemingly out of nowhere, and almost drowns the other styles
out of existence (at least in a non-military, non-pipe band sense).

Obviously the metal cantles, whether functional or decorative, echo the late 17th through mid 18th century pieces, but the late Victorians & Edwardians certainly dandied-up the bag quite a bit.
Making Highland wear more ornate does seem to fit the Victorian MO of romanticism and formality.

I made the bag for this cantle (which was made in Scotland and engraved in Canada) as part of a project to reproduce an original from 1907 that the commissioner had sold some years previous.



I actually had the original in-hand to take measurements from, which was a treat. What was interesting is that a paper, much like blotter paper, was used as a stiffener in the upper body.
It's not the first time I've seen that, but it IS the first time I've seen it in a piece so intact.

ith:

[Ron Abbott]

What a beautiful sporran!

[Harold Cannon]

Here you can see one that I made that has internal pockets and a pouch.

[Norbo]

WOW . This topic has been far more interesting then I thought and the array of different sporrans is fantastic. there are some truly lovely pictured .

[Grouse Claw]

Mine rattled with every step. It was worse than squeaky shoes, so I superglued them down. Now I don't scare the Kiwis.