History of the plain leather day sporran?

[OC Richard]

I thought this thread would be about the "history of the plain leather day sporran" but so far no one has dicussed that topic.

Everyone's talking about 18th century sporrans and pokes as so forth.

But the topic mentioned in the title of the thread is very interesting: Where did the plain leather day sporran come from?

As we know the mid-18th-century sporran, leather with a number of braided leather tassels, with opening metal purselike top, gradually evolved into the long hair sporran.

The Highlanders of Scotland, extremely detailed portraits of men in Highland dress painted in the 1860's, shows that at that time long hair sporrans were universally worn, with tweed jackets, black jackets, and military doublets. Tartan hose could be worn with tweed jackets; buckled shoes could be worn with plain hose; and so it went. Not a single man is wearing a sporran resembling a "plain leather day sporran".

For whatever reason, in the mid 20th century Highland dress evolved neatly seperated modes of dress, and names appeared for these modes. Each mode had its own jacket, sporran, hose, and footwear:

Day dress: tweed jacket, plain leather sporran resembling a pocket with flap, self-coloured hose, ghillie ties.

Evening dress: black formal jacket, sealskin sporran with metal cantle, tartan hose, Mary Janes.

Military Full Dress: doublet with standup collar, long hair sporran, diced hosetops, spats, feather bonnet.

So, the "plain leather day sporran" per se didn't exist until the concept of "day dress" itself came about, if we want to be literal.

What I wonder is, what is the first pictorial evidence of the "plain leather day sporran" as it was known in the 1950's up through recently?

To be quite clear, this is a leather pocket with flap, often bearing three braided leather tassels. It is NOT an 18th century sporran. It is NOT a poke.

Here is one, in this case tooled and lacking the tassels:



I have a large collection of photos of Victorian and Edwardian people in Highland dress and none are wearing such a thing. I suspect it was invented in the 20th century.

[HarborSpringsPiper]

I thought this thread would be about the "history of the plain leather day sporran" but so far no one has dicussed that topic.

Everyone's talking about 18th century sporrans and pokes as so forth.

But the topic mentioned in the title of the thread is very interesting: Where did the plain leather day sporran come from?

As we know the mid-18th-century sporran, leather with a number of braided leather tassels, with opening metal purselike top, gradually evolved into the long hair sporran.


I have a large collection of photos of Victorian and Edwardian people in Highland dress and none are wearing such a thing. I suspect it was invented in the 20th century.

I have a different take on this, but I find your observation that it is not present pictorially in the 19th century quite astute and something I never noticed or thought about before. I guess I am basically agreeing with prior posters in the thread that the sporran is nothing more than an extension of a pouch or purse hung from the waist, present for at least centuries. I did find a couple of 18th century prints that illustrate this (both contained in Osprey Military series books). I actually saw many prints that had a leather bag with a metal cantle but see your objection to this being considered a plain leather day sporran. I totally agree that the "day" concept must be a fairly recent construct.

I think this print clearly demonstrates a plain leather sporran with tassels and no metal cantle from the 18th century.




Although we cannot clearly see the top of this sporran, the flap is evident and I can't see how a metal closure would have been part of this sporran, this one from the early 18th century.




I think we have to remember that most people we have portraits or sketches of were people of substance/wealth and had the coolest stuff. Why have a plain leather sporran when you can afford a cool silver cantled one? I recognize that scholarly history requires evidence, but I fear the height of that bar sometimes obscures what the common man was doing at the time. I think that the MacLeay prints are a somewhat skewed view of 19th century dress but really cool and accurate for what they represent.

I have included a couple of pages from Ted Spring's Sketchbook 56, Vol. III - The Highlanders and Provincial Rangers. Obviously these are not period sketches but rather, that author's interpretations. I would comment though that his work is generally respected in the history community to my knowledge. The first page comments that the metal cantle may or may not be present. The second page shows a very simple leather sporran. I would have to dig further to find better evidence but suspect there were plenty of simple leather sporrans going back for a long time, certainly prior to the 20th century. If there truly was any lull in these over the 19th century, then I suspect that what we have now is more of a modern "retro" revival. I seriously doubt that they ever disappeared but concede I have no further evidence to substantiate them over the 19th century.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

So, the "plain leather day sporran" per se didn't exist until the concept of "day dress" itself came about, if we want to be literal. What I wonder is, what is the first pictorial evidence of the "plain leather day sporran" as it was known in the 1950's up through recently?

I suspect it was invented in the 20th century.

There is an excellent painting of James Moray of Abercairney, painted by Jeremiah Davidson in 1744/45 (but before the clans "went out" with Prince Charles) that quite clearly shows him wearing a simple leather sporran. So, I think that you may have to revise your opinion that the "plain leather day sporran" is a 20th century invention.

The picture of Abercairney is regarded by many to be one of the finest pictures ever painted of a gentleman in a belted plaid. Perhaps someone can down load the picture? If not, it may be seen on page 28 of "TARTANS" by Christian, Lady Hesketh.

[wvpiper]

This is a doll, of all things, someone made of the aforementioned James Moray.


Here's the real thing, I think

[OC Richard]

Sorry about my misuse of "tooled"!!

Yes that painting is very interesting in that is shows a sporran shaped exactly like the modern "day sporran".

But... when one is talking about the origin of a current thing, to me that means tracing its evolution through an unbroken series of intermediate forms back through to its first known appearance.

Having an isolated appearance of that sporran shape in the 18th century, when sporrans normally didn't look like that, doesn't to me establish an evolutionary relationship. As mentioned, the leather sporrans of the 18th century evolved into fur sporrans, then eventually into the long goathair sporrans universally worn in all modes of Highland dress by the mid-19th century. This style in turn evolved into the long horsehair sporrans of the 20th century.

To be quite clear, the type of sporran I'm talking about is the sort almost universally worn in "day dress" in the 1950's up through the 1970's when I began wearing Highland dress:



This was nearly always in brown leather. It was worn with a standardised outfit which consisted of a tweed kilt jacket and self-coloured hose and Balmoral bonnet in some coordinating shade such as Lovat blue, Lovat green, or tan. Oddly, the ghillies and waistbelt were usually in black leather. (The idea of having all the leathers match didn't occur to most people, it seems.)

What I wonder is, what is the first appearance of this specific modern sporran design which is contiguous with its continued use up through today?

I wonder if the military was involved... I don't know when the army began using the plain leather pocket-shaped sporrans it still uses today.

And, when did the modern "evening dress" sporran appear? It wasn't around in the mid-19th-century either, and strikes my eye as a modern attempt to recreate something more or less like a late-18th-century fur sporran with semicircular metal cantle.

(These specific styles as opposed to the question of the evolution of the sporran in general.)

[HarborSpringsPiper]

Yes that painting is very interesting in that is shows a sporran shaped exactly like the modern "day sporran".

But... when one is talking about the origin of a current thing, to me that means tracing its evolution through an unbroken series of intermediate forms back through to its first known appearance.

Having an isolated appearance of that sporran shape in the 18th century, when sporrans normally didn't look like that, doesn't to me establish an evolutionary relationship.

While I believe I do know which type of sporran you are talking about, I'm not sure I follow your logic here. These were hardly isolated appearances and sporrans normally did look like that (+/- metal cantle), as there are plenty of example up through the late 18th century, as we have seen on this thread alone. What you seem to object to is their absence in the prints you have from the 19th century. I take it that a picture of one or more in that time frame would fill that gap? I don't have one, but a friend of mine suggested a book or two he has that supposedly shows them. I'll see if/when I can take a look at that and scan some pics if they are representative.

I have run across a couple of pics of WWI examples previously. A quick search produced this one. The link has supportive documentation that this belonged to a member of the "Black Watch 73rd (Overseas) Battalion (Royal Highlanders of Canada), Canadian Expeditionary Force", enlisted 1915.



http://sattlers.org/mickey/culture/c...h/sporran.html