DIY retro sporran project

[Troglodyte]

The thing started around a decade ago when I picked up this vintage cantle on Ebay.



It's one of the most beautiful cantles I've seen. It's solid heavy cast "German silver" AKA "nickel silver" AKA Cupro-nickel which was the most popular metal for Highland buckles, sporran fittings, bagpipe mounts, etc throughout the Victorian period up till around WWII. Since it's cast it must have been made in quantity, but I've not seen another.

It was probably made between around 1910 and 1940.

It came attached to a new military-style horsehair sporran, not my cup of tea. So when a modern goathair sporran (with ugly bronze cantle) came up on Ebay I bought it and partnered the c1930 cantle with the goathair body, the result seen above.

This is fine, but not suitable for many outfits, so I began looking for inspiration for a different body to go with that cantle.

As it happens, in the Edwardian period silver-topped Day Dress sporrans were common, here's a Mood Board of those. (The King's, upper right, is quite recent but follows that tradition.)

Lower right is a c1910 catalogue page of Day Dress sporrans intended for wearing with tweed Day outfits. By 1930 the style at upper right on the catalogue page, fur with silver top, was becoming popular in Evening Dress, eventually more popular than the long white hair Victorian silver-topped sporran, though never fully replacing it.



I created a Mood Board of various vintage (and neo-vintage) sporrans I liked



Out of this came some collage mockups



Which in turn led to me cobbling together what, in effect, is a "working mockup" or test sporran.

I picked up a seal sporran (being sold as "faux fur") on Ebay for $28.

Upper left: The Pakistani seal sporran with ugly dark grey-painted cantle, and tassels, removed. As per my Mood Board and collage mockups I decided to go with buff/natural leather braided cord.

Upper right: I put on my vintage cantle and punched new holes in the fur body.

Lower left: The braided cord added. I sanded off the grey paint on the "bells" and underneath was a promising silvery layer. What I didn't know was that under that was a third layer, the base, which is brass. I went too far with the sanding and I'm left with brass bells.

Lower right: Cords and temporary bells installed. I have two sets of proper bells ordered. The sporran will eventually have a 4th tassel as per the collage mockups. The tassels will have nickel bells and matching buff/natural leather fringe.

I really like what you are doing with this sporran, and am keen to see the final results...

With my nickel cantles, I find using a silver-brush (like an oversize toothbrush with bristles like a shoe-brush) as that keeps off any unwanted tarnish without giving too bright a shine - it works well with pewter, too.

The pictures below are the sporran I finished a short while ago (perhaps you recognise it from another group) with which I tried to get the same sort of day-wear fur-front style with leather tassels, for the same reasons you talk about. I have also, on another metal-cantled sporran, replaced the chain-mounted tassels with braided leather to produce what I think is a practical 'smart day-wear' item - which gets admiring comments.

With the braided cords, I have found that knotting one cord around the other (which is left unknotted) keeps the bulk to a minimum while doing the job, but I have seen it done with two half-knots (one from each cord, tied around, or looping through the other's half-knot) with good effect.

I intend to do this with one of my future projects.




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