Quality Sporrans for less money

**Father Bill** · 23rd December 22, 10:51 AM

Originally Posted by TheVintageLibertine

Is it impolitic to ask what “the fur that shall not be named” is? I was recently online window shopping for sporrans, and noticed quite a few that said “not available to US customers” in the description.

Not impolitic at all. Heidi Klum was once married to this type of fur.

How's that for cryptic?

**TheVintageLibertine** · 23rd December 22, 11:24 AM

Originally Posted by Father Bill

Not impolitic at all. Heidi Klum was once married to this type of fur.

How's that for cryptic?

I never knew sporrans were made of R&B singers. You learn something new every day 🤯

**OC Richard** · 24th December 22, 07:42 AM

The fur "that shall not be named" or "sea-Voldemort" is seal.

It's been illegal to import into the USA, or sell within US borders, for many years.

Anything made with seal fur attempting to cross the border, or offered for sale, is subject to on-the-spot seizure by federal authorities.

AFAIK it's not illegal to possess, unlike ivory.

So when purchasing a seal sporran from a seller outwith the USA you take your chances.

Many slip through, many are seized by US Customs.

Obviously if the seller puts "seal fur" or "sealskin" in the Customs declaration, or if the sporran has a "Made from Greenland Seal" sticker on the back, the chances of slipping through are reduced.

Hence the "must not be named".

Unlike the word "ivory" which is often caught by online filters used by various sites, the word "seal" (being an ordinary English word with several other meanings) is far more difficult to filter out.

**OC Richard** · 24th December 22, 07:47 AM

For under $10 three sporrans, two apparently adult size, one child's size.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/22530059776...tion=10%7C3000

I wish the seller had posted a photo showing the backs.

Because many Pakistani sporrans look like Scottish-made sporrans from the front, but have telltale oddities on the back.

**OC Richard** · 30th December 22, 04:11 AM

Lovely made in Scotland seal sporran for around $10.

The shipping is pricey to the USA, but being seal it shouldn't be posted here anyway.

I would guess that post within the UK is much less.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/17555111915...tion=10%7C3000

**OC Richard** · 5th January 23, 04:11 AM

Nice plain brown leather Day sporran $25.

The seller doesn't show the back, I asked if there were any stamps or markings on the back.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/16586648439...tion=10%7C3000

**JPS** · 6th January 23, 09:31 AM

Originally Posted by OC Richard

Nice plain brown leather Day sporran $25.

The seller doesn't show the back, I asked if there were any stamps or markings on the back.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/16586648439...tion=10%7C3000

I wonder if you've heard anything back. This used to be part of a listing for a kilt. It looks nearly identical to one of my old sporrans, though it's probably more of a medium brown, lighter than mine. For what it's worth, mine has no stamp on the back.
IMG_20230106_112001.jpg

**TheVintageLibertine** · 6th January 23, 09:36 AM

Originally Posted by JPS

I wonder if you've heard anything back. This used to be part of a listing for a kilt. It looks nearly identical to one of my old sporrans, though it's probably more of a medium brown, lighter than mine. For what it's worth, mine has no stamp on the back.
IMG_20230106_112001.jpg

The seller ended up posting a picture of the back, which had no markings at all.

**OC Richard** · 7th January 23, 04:47 AM

Having no stamp unfortunately leaves us in the dark as to whether or not it's Scottish-made.

W E Scott & Son used to use that gold oval Made In Scotland Real Leather stamp, but at some point (I wish I knew when) they stopped stamping their sporrans, just putting on a sticker.

As we've seen each maker tends to have a distinct shape to the leather tab sewn on the back. Also the shape of the strap with the press-button/snap varies.

I wish I had enough photos of enough sporrans to know for certain which shapes went with which makers.

Confusing the matter is how makers such as W E Scott would sell sporrans to various retailers, these stamped with the retailer's name in several instances.

In any case that brown sporran in question has a certain shape of tab and stitiching that I've seen on sporrans sold in more recent times by Kinloch Anderson.

Whether these are made in-house by them, or by W E Scott or somebody else, I don't know. However W E Scott's tabs are generally straight across the top and bottom.

Here's a Kinloch Anderson-stamped sporran with the same tab shape and stitching pattern as the plain brown leather sporran that has sold on Ebay. Note that top and bottom there's a straight row of stitching and a curved row.

Here's that plain brown sporran #19 in the 1936 Anderson's catalogue

and it was often sold with a fur front.

**OC Richard** · 7th January 23, 04:51 AM

Speaking of sellers not putting helpful photos of the backs of the sporrans on Ebay, here's one that I suspect is by W E Scott & Son.

They made these "bovine" versions of seal sporrans for sale to the US market.

I did ask the seller about the back.

In any case it's a bargain at $65, as I strongly suspect it's Scottish-made.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/40393840843...Bk9SR6rjnr-xYQ