Page:EB1911 - Volume 11.djvu/368

Rh and thinner white and grey parts, the first being known as squirrel-back and the other as squirrel-lock linings. A few linings are made from entire skins and others are made from the quite white pieces, which in some instances are spotted with the black ear tips of the animals to resemble ermine. The smaller and uneven pieces of heads and legs are made up into linings, so there is absolutely no waste. Similar work is done in Russia on almost as extensive a scale, but neither the dressing nor the work is so good as the German.

The majority of heads, gills or throats, sides or flanks, paws and pieces of skins cut up in the fur workshops of Great Britain, America and France, weighing many tons, are chiefly exported to Leipzig, and made up in neighbouring countries and Greece, where labour can be obtained at an alarmingly low rate. Although the sewing, which is necessarily done by hand, the sections being of so unequal and tortuous a character, is rather roughly executed, the matching of colours and qualities is excellent. The enormous quantities of pieces admit of good selection and where odd colours prevail in a lining it is dyed. Many squirrel-lock linings are dyed blue and brown and used for the outside of cheap garments. They are of little weight, warm and effective, but not of great durability.

The principal linings are as follows: Sable sides, sable heads and paws, sable gills, mink sides, heads and gills, marten sides, heads and gills, Persian lamb pieces and paws, caracul lamb pieces or paws, musquash sides and heads, nutria sides, genet pieces, raccoon sides or flanks, fox sides, kolinski whole skins, and small rodents as kaluga and hamster. The white stripes cut out of skunks are made into rugs.

Another great source of inexpensive furs is China, and for many years past enormous quantities of dressed furs, many of which are made up in the form of linings and Chinese loose-shaped garments, have been imported by England, Germany and France for the lower class of business; the garments are only regarded as so much fur and are reworked. With, however, the exception of the best white Tibet lambs, the majority of Chinese furs can only be regarded as inferior material. While the work is often cleverly done as to matching and manipulation of the pelt which is very soft, there are great objections in the odour and the brittleness or weakness of the fur. One of the most remarkable results of the European intervention in the Boxer rising in China (1900) was the absurd price paid for so-called “loot” of furs, particularly in mandarins’ coats of dyed and natural fox skins and pieces, and natural ermine, poor in quality and yellowish in colour; from three to ten times their value was paid for them when at the same time huge parcels of similar quality were warehoused in the London docks, because purchasers could not be found for them.

With regard to Japanese furs, there is little to commend them. The best are a species of raccoon usually sold as fox, and, being of close long quality of fur, they are serviceable for boas, collars, muffs and carriage aprons. The sables, martens, minks and otters are poor in quality, and all of a very yellow colour and they are generally dyed for the cheap trade. A small number of very pretty guanaco and vicuna carriage rugs are imported into Europe, and many come through travellers and private sources, but generally they are so badly dressed that they are quite brittle upon the leather side. Similar remarks are applicable to opossum rugs made in Australia. From South Africa a quantity of jackal, hyena, fox, leopard and sheep karosses, i.e. a peculiarly shaped rug or covering used by native chiefs, is privately brought over. The skins are invariably tanned and beautifully sewn, the furs are generally flat in quality and not very strong in the hair, and are retained’ more as curiosities than for use as a warm covering.

Hatters’ Furs and Cloths and Shawls.—The hat trade is largely interested in the fur piece trade, the best felt hats being made from beaver and musquash wool and the cheaper sorts from nutria, hare and rabbit wools. For weaving, the most valuable pieces are mohair taken from the angora and vicuna. They are limited in quantity and costly, and the trade depends upon various sorts of other sheep and goat wools for the bulk of its productions.

Frauds and Imitations.—The opportunities for cheating in the fur trade are very considerable, and most serious frauds have been perpetrated in the selling of sables that have been coloured or “topped”; that is, just the tips of the hairs stained dark to represent more expensive skins. It is only by years of experience that some of these colourings can be detected. Where the skins are heavily dyed it is comparatively easy to see the difference between a natural and a dyed colour, as the underwool and top hair become almost alike and the leather is also dark, whereas in natural skins the base of the underwool is much paler than the top, or of a different colour, and the leather is white unless finished in a pale reddish tone as is sometimes the case when mahogany sawdust is used in the final cleaning. As has been explained, sable is a term applied for centuries past to the darker sorts of the Russian Siberian martens, and for years past the same term has been bestowed by the retail trade upon the American and Canadian martens. The baum and stone martens caught in France, the north of Turkey and Norway are of the same family, but coarser in underwool and the top hair is less in quantity and not so silky. The kolinski, or as it is sometimes styled Tatar sable, is the animal, the tail of which supplies hair for artists’ brushes. This is also of the marten species and has been frequently offered, when dyed dark, as have baum and stone martens, as Russian sables. Hares, too, are dyed a sable colour and advertised as sable. The fur, apart from a clumsy appearance, is so brittle, however, as to be of scarcely any service whatever.

Among the principal imitations of other furs is musquash, out of which the top hair has been pulled and the undergrowth of wool clipped and dyed exactly the same colour as is used for seal, which is then offered as seal or red river seal. Its durability, however, is far less than that of seal. Rabbit is prepared and dyed and frequently offered as “electric sealskin.” Nutria also is prepared to represent sealskin, and in its natural colour, after the long hairs are plucked out, it is sold as otter or beaver. The wool is, however, poor compared to the otter and beaver, and the pelt thin and in no way comparable to them in strength. White hares are frequently sold as white fox, but the fur is weak, brittle and exceedingly poor compared to fox and possesses no thick underwool. Foxes, too, and badger are dyed a brownish black, and white hairs inserted to imitate silver fox, but the white hairs are too coarse and the colour too dense to mislead any one who knows the real article. But if sold upon its own merits, pointed fox is a durable fur.

Garments made of sealskin pieces and Persian lamb pieces are frequently sold as if they were made of solid skins, the term “pieces” being simply suppressed. The London Chamber of Commerce have issued to the British trade a notice that any misleading term in advertising and all attempts at deception are illegal, and offenders are liable under the Merchandise Marks Act 1887.

The most usual misnaming of manufactured furs is as follow:—

The Preservation of Furs.—For many years raw sealskins