Description
A well-made, early twentieth century Scottish Provincial child’s Highland full-dress sporran consisting of an oval green leather pouch, faced with silver-grey fur and with a rear-mounted green leather purse of bellows form in three sections with beige leather dividers and a flap closure. The top arc of the pouch is trimmed with a silver cantle, on the top of which are three small spherical knobs, two plain and one knurled, and to the front three circular silver bosses with inter-linking symmetric decoration, to one side of two intertwined, scaly serpents and to the other of a plain wirework Celtic knot pattern. Two animal hair tassels gathered in silver cones suspended by a twisted link silver chain emerge from the front face. The pouch is suspended by silver chains comprised of elongated, flat, S-scrolled and beaded links from a kilt attachment clip terminating in a circular finial comprising the head & shoulders effigy of a bearded Highlander with Balmoral bonnet, sword, shield and a thistle.
Maker’s marks:
The cantle is marked on its matt-finished rear face with ‘W.B.T.’ in a rectangular punch, for William Buchanan Taylor, and ‘INVss’ in a rectangular punch as the town mark for Inverness. There are no other control marks but the silver is probably of 0.925 sterling standard.
Dimensions & Weight:
Length (from kilt clip finial to base of pouch): 19 cm / 7 ½ ins; Width (pouch): 7.0 cm / 2 ¾ ins; Gross Weight: 86 gm
Condition:
In very good condition overall, one divider of the rear-mounted purse has a small tear.
William Buchanan Taylor of Inverness
Born about 1877, he died at Inverness in 1942 having been listed as a ‘Goldsmith’ in the 1901 census. His marks, ‘W.T’ and ‘W.B.T.’, both contained within oblong punches with clipped corners, were entered in the Edinburgh Assay Office register and his first assays were in 1904.
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