Spruce sable skin

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the foreground, a short coat made of American sable (2006)

The fur of the spruce sable is usually traded in tobacco shops as "American sable" or "Canadian sable" . The structure of the fur is similar to the sable , the spruce marten also belongs to the genus of the real marten , but it is more like the European pine marten in shape, color and way of life . Because of its similarity to the valued Russian sable, fur is one of the most sought-after types of fur. The spruce marten lives in wooded areas of Newfoundland , Canada and Alaska, and also in the western United States south to New Mexico and the Sierra Nevada .

hide

The fur of male spruce marten has a head body length of 55 to 64 centimeters, that of females 49 to 60 centimeters, the densely hairy tail is 15 to 20 or 13.5 to 18 centimeters long. The dense, soft, fine silky to silky, medium-length hair surpasses that of the pine marten, so that the fur is rated higher than the pine marten but lower than the Russian sable. In contrast to winter fur, summer fur is short and coarse. The coat change only takes place in summer and extends over a longer period of time. The guide hairs begin to fall out in early spring and the undercoat is shed in summer. During this time, the otherwise bushy tail also appears slender. The winter fur is fully developed in mid-October. The brown color of the hair shows, depending on its origin, lighter, darker, yellowish brown to deep dark brown shades, sometimes it appears almost black, the ventral side is lighter. The undercoat is tan. The throat spot is often deep orange in color, sometimes there are only hinted small white-gray spots.

The durability coefficient for spruce sable fur is given as 40 to 50 percent, elsewhere as 50 to 60 percent. When the fur animals are divided into the fineness classes silky, fine, medium-fine, coarse and hard, the spruce sable hair is classified as fine.

Trade, history

Spruce marten coat ("Canadian marten", 1901)

The value of the American or Canadian sable was always estimated to be lower than the fur of the Russian sable. The most valuable hides, like the Russian sable, have a silvery guard hair. An American fur trader reported hearsay about white sables from Alaska in 1927; he himself had only seen one fur in his career. It was said that the locals valued the white pelts so much that they exchanged 20 to 30 beaver pelts for it. Light-colored skins were still often used in the Orient at the beginning of the 19th century, where, among other things, the khalates of honor that the Sultan gave away were fed with them.

The annual fur attack can vary considerably. Apparently because of a lack of food, the animals disappear about every ten years from some previously inhabited areas and migrate to other regions. Forest fires can also have a significant impact on populations.

Before the First World War there were about 11 farms for growing spruce marten in Canada; in the course of the war and a certain neglect of the skin type by fashion in the post-war period, all the farms ceased operations.

Velvet mink coat with American gold sable trim (2010)

At the beginning of the 19th century, thousands of pelts came to Europe every year. However, as a result of excessive stalking, the animal had become increasingly rare. In 1936, at the Wildlife Protection Conference in Washington, closed seasons were introduced and the catch was precisely regulated and adapted to the respective stocks, so that the annual incidence for Canada in 1985/86 was 180,000 furs again. Over 75 percent of the attack comes from Canada, the rest from Maine , the mountainous regions of the western United States, and Alaska.

The best hides come from the Hudson Bay, Fort George (FG) and East Maine (EM) areas. Newfoundland pelts are also dark and fine in hair. Furs from Alaska and the Northwest of the USA, on the other hand, are usually lighter, brownish-yellow and a little coarser.

Eastern come from Ontario , Quebec , New Brunswick , Newfoundland, and Maine. Skins from this area tend to be smaller and lighter in color than those from the west. The best qualities come from Labrador , they are heavy and have very thick and strong hair. The next best come from Ontario and central Quebec, the hair is less dense and they are of medium weight. Pelts from central and northwestern Ontario and southern Quebec are of lower quality and lighter. Furs from New Brunswick and Maine are particularly light and tend to be small. Skins from these three regions are sometimes traded in their own ranges.

Commercial custom, according to Bachrach

The New York fur dealer Max Bachrach wrote about the American martens trade in 1930. It was customary for the locals to bring the furs to the main trading venues, peeled off round, with the hair facing inwards so that they would not be damaged during the difficult, risky transport through the ice-covered country. The furs were tied in bundles and carried on their backs, then transported in dog sleds and by canoe until they reached the trading post. The buyer then usually turned the skins on the hair side in order to make them easier to sort and to better identify damaged areas. More considerate buyers did not wear the leather by turning it over, but then paid 10 cents less per fur to compensate for the fact that they might not be able to notice fur defects.

Bachrach says about the commercial varieties:

The strong dark spruce sable color is generally restricted to those species that come from the eastern Canadian sections, but not all of them are dark. The color range extends from a blue-black color to a pale canary yellow, the canary yellow can only be used colored.

Group A of the western type (Western) are on average less different in color than most of the rest because they do not contain so extremely dark skins as found in the Eastern (Eastern), there are none so very pale that a coloring require. Most of these skins are blinded in the upper hair.

An exception, however, is found in the cascade range , a mountain range in the Rocky Mountains that lies in the states of Oregon, Washington and Lower Columbia. In this way, the color has a orange tint, particularly in the rear part of the body, they are only suitable for dyeing, as a diaphragm would not cover the strong tint sufficient.

Group B, with the exception of a few dark specimens from the northern parts, is usually medium brown to pale in color, but does not reach the canary yellow found in the eastern varieties, the pelts are so light that they also require a coloring process.

The sorting by color corresponds to that of the Eastern type with its dark skins: especially dark (Choice Dark), dark, dark brown, brown, pale, reddish. In general, the color names between the regions should match, dark martens from the Hudson Bay districts should correspond to those of the province of Quebec, for example, in the degree of darkness.

The sizes in each section are classified independently of the others, the size designations are Extra Large, Large, Medium and Small. Group B skins, Western type, are the largest, while Eastern skins are the smallest. Western group A falls between these two types.

Sioux chief, feather headdress with ermine skins and a spruce sable skin (2001)

The Hudson's Bay Company made a distinction

  • Come here:
MKR (Mackenzie River), WA (West Arctic), EB (Eskimo-Bai), FG (Fort George), EM (East Main), MR (Moose River), LS (Lake Superior), CANA (Canada), ALASKA, YUKON , NW (northwest), Coast (coastal region)
  • Sizes:
exlarge (over 21 inch), large (over 18 inch), medium, small (under 18 inch)
  • Sorts:
I, II, III, IV, smalls, slightly and badly damaged, low grades, thin
  • Colours:
exdark, ark, brown, light brown, pale, light pale
American rabbi with a schtreimel made from colored American sable tails (2006)

processing

Dark-colored skins were mostly processed naturally, most of them are light-colored and are either bleached, dyed or blinded. When blending, the color is applied from the hair with a brush, so that the bottom hair remains undyed and the impression of a natural color is retained. Blending and coloring are usually intended to make the fur more similar to the Russian sable, but fantasy colors are also offered, in particular according to the respective textile fashion. The skins are very often bleached and then sold as American or Canadian gold sable .

The skin processing corresponds to that of the Russian sable. For coats and jackets, depending on the fashion and model, the skins are either stacked on top of one another or processed in a relaxed manner. When discharging the skins at the expense of the width of V-shaped or A-shaped sections are extended. This working technique creates narrow stripes in the length of the garment, which at the same time has a particularly flowing drape. Complicated strip guides can also be implemented with this. For stripes that go beyond a simple jacket length, skins are first cut into one another in a difficult furrier work to what appears to be a skin. Since about before 2000, however, applied processing has been increasingly preferred for all types of fur, but especially for sable (2012).

The use is the same as that of the Russian sable, mainly for trimmings and large-scale clothing (jackets and coats, occasionally fur blankets ); the processing is also like that of the Russian sable fur. In 1965, the fur consumption for a fur board with 60 to 70 pelts sufficient for an American sable coat was specified (so-called coat “body” ). A board with a length of 112 centimeters and an average width of 150 centimeters and an additional sleeve section was used as the basis. This corresponds roughly to a fur material for a slightly exhibited coat of clothing size 46 from 2014. The maximum and minimum fur numbers can result from the different sizes of the sexes of the animals, the age groups and their origin. Depending on the type of fur, the three factors have different effects.

The fur residues that fall off during processing are also used as with most other types of fur. In particular, the paws, heads, throats, front chest pieces (Nourkulemi) and rear stomach pieces (Thiliki) are put together to form bodies in order to then be traded and processed as semi-finished fur products . The main places of fur scraps recycling, originating in the 14th to 15th centuries, are the Greek Kastoria and the nearby smaller town of Siatista . The tails are particularly valued, especially in North America, where they are used to make the almost wagon-wheel-sized headgear of Hasidic Jews, the Schtreimel . They fetch a higher price than the tails of Russian sables and have been reimported to America from Europe for years for use in Schtreimels (2009).

numbers

Detailed trade figures for North American tobacco products can be found at

Emil Brass: From the realm of fur . 2nd improved edition, publisher of the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1925
Emil Brass: From the realm of fur (1911) in the internet archive: archive.org
Milan Novak et al, Ministry of Natural Resources: Wild furbearer management and conservation in North America . Ontario 1987 (English). ISBN 0-7778-6086-4
Milan Novak et al., Ministry of Natural Resources: Furbearer Harvests in North America, 1600-1984 , Appendix to the above Wild furbearer management and conservation in North America . Ontario 1987 (English). ISBN 0-7729-3564-5
  • In 1658 the American Companies traded 6 pelts, for the ten years up to 1674 also 6 pieces per year (these are the earliest figures in statistics from the Ministry of Natural Resources from 1987, which include records of the occurrence of North American tobacco products. This unlikely, The same annual trading volume of the company is not explained in detail there).
  • In 1700 the Hudson's Bay Company recorded 6,291 American sable hides.
  • The following quantities of American sables came up for sale by the Hudson's Bay Company over the years
1726 : 5680 pieces, highest price 10 / [Engl. ₤] p. St.
1727 : 5940, highest price 7/10 p. St.
1728 : 9520, highest price 7 / p. St.
In 1729 the price was 5 / 8-10 / each.
  • In 1733 the Hudson's Bay Company imported 4559 sables, calculated to the value of 1519 beavers (the unit of account used there at the time).
  • 1740 , on December 20, the Hudson's Bay Company in London sold 16,300 sables of 7/10 [₤] per hide and 2,360 damaged sables of 4 shillings. by fur.
  • In November 1743 , the Hudson's Bay Company sold 12,370 sables for a total of Gesamt 4,242.7 and 2,360 damaged sables for zu 442.10. The main auction did not follow until March 1744, when double the amount [of all types of fur] was sold, with a total value of [all types of fur] of around ca. 40,000. Altogether about 60,000 ₤ equivalent for the 3800 ₤ European goods sent out in 1740 [unclear].
  • 1752-1890
Import list of American sable hides of the Hudson's Bay Company to London 1752–1890 (after Henry Poland, London)
year piece year piece year piece year piece year piece year piece year piece year piece year piece year piece year piece year piece year piece year
1761 18,547 1771 22,496 1781 18,277 1791 20,954 1801 22,949 1811 11,339 1821 69.995 1831 96,450 1841 57,848 1851 80.005 1861 74,062 1871 54,333 1881 54,370
1752 24,639 1762 13,389 1772 12,626 1782 7,466 1792 21,095 1802 18,265 1812 24,425 1822 87,884 1832 37,954 1842 63,529 1852 90,633 1862 78.035 1872 64,587 1882 66,821
1753 25,725 1763 17,332 1773 9,891 1783 13,420 1793 11,639 1803 9,893 1813 9,900 1823 62,861 1833 17,732 1843 70,532 1853 85,603 1863 105,659 1873 62,488 1883 70,802
1754 10,787 1764 11,814 1774 16,739 1784 13,800 1794 8,627 1804 17.182 1814 23.106 1824 61,216 1834 64,490 1844 71,954 1854 127.019 1864 115,430 1874 125,733 1884 78,775
1755 9,671 1765 7,558 1775 19,742 1785 16,322 1795 15,547 1805 22,318 1815 21,787 1825 61,520 1835 61.005 1845 103,621 1855 177.052 1865 150.192 1875 87,803 1885 78,857
1756 6,050 1766 8,066 1776 18,143 1786 23,365 1796 25,787 1806 40.182 1816 16,628 1826 88,839 1836 l 56,893 1846 148,670 1856 175.494 1866 115,560 1876 84,439 1886 50,842
1757 5,352 1767 20,768 1777 17,798 1787 27,960 1797 30,374 1807 40,476 1817 56,648 1827 105,561 1837 156.168 1847 146.137 1857 132,752 1867 9.114 1877 83,835 1887 72,939
1758 7,882 1768 19,949 1778 16,730 1788 25,070 1798 18,488 1808 33,706 1818 65,139 1828 83,417 1838 83,709 1848 115.323 1858 136,451 1868 163.088 1878 55,439 1888 64.179
1759 20,295 1769 15,897 1779 17,484 1789 23,901 1799 22,875 1809 2,350 1819 65,851 1829 73,860 1839 63.129 1849 65,558 1859 120,430 1869 67,072 1879 52,578 1889 72,713
1760 22,465 1770 26,547 1780 22,060 1790 18,847 1800 30.053 1810 51,807 1820 62,411 1830 25,524 1840 56,860 1850 66,069 1860 77,844 1870 50193 1880 49,529 1890 64,689
  • In 1855 , 176,000 from the Hudson region and 15,000 from Canada and the USA, the largest annual number of skins in the 19th century.
  • In 1874 there were 125,000 skins from Hudsons Bay and 32,000 from the rest of North America; a year later 87,000 and 34,000. In the 19th century, the hundred thousand was not reached again.
  • Around 1910 the annual amount of spruce sable pelts was only 8,000 pelts due to the reduced stocks.
  • Before 1926 , 30,000 to 500,000 skins came from the Hudsons Bay area annually, and the CM Lampson company brought 20,000 to 30,000 skins for sale. The price per skin was 100 to 200 marks, depending on the quality. The main buyers at the time were England and the USA, while relatively few people bought this type of fur in Germany.
American sable ties (Kürschner H. Peter, Augsburg 1908)
  • 1930
Size comparison of American sable hides
Varieties
("Section")		 Sizes
XL L. M. S. colour structure
Eastern Canada 30th 26th 25th 23 canary yellow to dark silky
Alaska 32 28 26th 24 brown rough
Northwest Canada 33 31 26th 24 pale brown medium coarse
Oregon and Coast 30th 27 26th 25th orange coloring very coarse
  • 1982/83 , this season, the total annual production in North America was 150,000, including 100,000 in Canada.
  • 1985/86 , this season the annual incidence of 180,000 pelts was only in Canada.
  • In 1985/86 , thanks to extensive protective measures and strict regulations, 180,000 skins came onto the market from Canada alone.

See also

Raw spruce sable skins (leather outside, back and belly side), skin cut open in the middle (1906)
Commons : Spruce Sable Skins  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Commons : Spruce sable skin clothing  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

annotation

  1. ↑ The specified comparative values ​​( coefficients ) are the result of comparative tests by furriers and tobacco shops with regard to the degree of apparent wear and tear. The figures are not unambiguous; in addition to the subjective observations of durability in practice, there are also influences from fur dressing and fur finishing as well as numerous other factors in each individual case . More precise information could only be determined on a scientific basis. The division was made in steps of 10 percent each. The most durable types of fur according to practical experience were set to 100 percent.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Heinrich Dathe , Paul Schöps, with the collaboration of 11 specialist scientists: Pelztieratlas . VEB Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena, 1986, pp. 174-175
  2. ↑ Paul Schöps; H. Brauckhoff, Stuttgart; K. Häse, Leipzig, Richard König , Frankfurt / Main; W. Straube-Daiber, Stuttgart: The durability coefficients of fur skins in Das Pelzgewerbe , Volume XV, New Series, 1964, No. 2, Hermelin Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin, Frankfurt / Main, Leipzig, Vienna, pp. 56–58
  3. ^ David G. Kaplan: World of Furs . Fairchield Publications. Inc., New York 1974, p. 176 (English)
  4. ↑ Paul Schöps, Kurt Häse: The fineness of the hair - the fineness classes . In: Das Pelzgewerbe Vol. VI / New Series, 1955 No. 2, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Leipzig, Berlin, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 39–40
  5. ↑ George R. Cripps: About Furs . Daily Post Printers, Liverpool 1913, p. 64 (English) ( table of contents ).
  6. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Emil Brass: From the realm of fur . 2nd improved edition, publisher of the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1925, pp. 395–452, 574–576
  7. ↑ Arthur Samet: Pictorial Encyclopedia of Furs . Arthur Samet (Book Division), New York 1950, p. 194 (English)
  8. ↑ a b c d e f g Christian Franke / Johanna Kroll: Jury Fränkel's Rauchwaren-Handbuch 1988/89 . 10. revised and supplemented new edition, Rifra-Verlag Murrhardt, pp. 54–55
  9. ^ A b Milan Novak et al., Ministry of Natural Resources: Wild furbearer management and conservation in North America . Ontario 1987 (English). ISBN 0-7778-6086-4
  10. ^ A b Max Bachrach: Fur. A Practical Treatise. Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York 1936. S. (English)
  11. ^ Friedrich Lorenz: Rauchwarenkunde , 4th edition. Verlag Volk und Wissen, Berlin 1958, p. 91
  12. ↑ Paul Schöps among others: The material requirement for fur clothing . In: Das Pelzgewerbe Vol. XVI / New Series 1965 No. 1, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin et al., Pp. 7-12. Note: The information for a body was only made to make the types of fur easier to compare. In fact, bodies were only made for small (up to about muskrat size ) and common types of fur, and also for pieces of fur . The following dimensions for a coat body were taken as a basis: body = height 112 cm, width below 160 cm, width above 140 cm, sleeves = 60 × 140 cm.
  13. ^ A b Novak Milan et al., Ministry of Natural Resources: Furbearer Harvests in North America, 1600-1984 , Supplement to Wild furbearer management and conservation in North America . Ontario 1987, pp. 115-121. ISBN 0-7729-3564-5