Corsican fur

Korsakfuchswammen coat (2008)

The corsak fur is the fur of the steppe fox , formerly often also called Asiatic or Mongolian kit fox fur . The home of the fox, also known as the corsak fox (sometimes also Korsuk) or sand fox, is the steppe areas of Siberia and Central Asia from the Caspian Sea to Mongolia , Manchuria and Korea . The corsak fur and the products made from it were historically a popular commodity.

The steppe fox was already hunted in prehistoric epochs. In later times, nomadic peoples gave their tribute to the Mongols in the form of corsair skins.

hide

Boards made of corsak skins ("Mongolian kit foxes")

The corsak fur has a head body length of only 50 to 60 cm, the densely hairy tail is much shorter than that of the similar, larger red fox; the legs are longer, the ears larger, and the guard hairs softer. The overall color of the winter coat is pale yellow to yellowish gray or reddish gray. The hair is thick; the back awns are ringed silvery with a cinnamon-brown undertone, throat, chest and dewlaps are yellowish-white. The overall impression is reminiscent of a kit fox skin .

The legs are yellowish in front, rust-brownish-yellow on the sides, becoming paler towards the rear. The head is grayish ocher, the forehead is darker, the eye area is lighter, the snout, throat and underside of the neck are white to yellowish. The ears are ocher to fox-red at the back with a white border. The pale yellow tail is veiled in black, at the level of the tail root there is a black spot (viole), the tip of the tail is dark to black. The undercoat is ash gray, as is the guard hair, only it has a white tip. The skins of males are only slightly larger than those of females.

The durability coefficient for the kit fox fur is given as 50 to 60 percent.

trade

The importance of the corsair skin was once much greater than it is today. In Kyrgyzstan, for example, barter was always converted to the “corsak fur number”, which represented a kind of money substitute.

The Russian trade standard distinguishes:
Come here:	Petropavlovsky	Semipalatinsky
	Orenburg	West Kazakhstan
	Astrakhan	Central Asian
	Tashkener
Sorts:	I have full hair
	II less full-haired
	III half-haired
	divided into:	a) slightly damaged / slightly damaged
		b) severely damaged / very damaged
		c) unusable (rejects)

In 1904 Brass wrote about corsair skins: " They are not an article of commerce in East Asia, but quantities are said to come from Transbaikalia onto the Russian market ."

For the winter of 1923/24 he later reports 135,700 units a year. At the time, a new dyeing method was being adopted and it was in great demand. After that, deliveries decreased significantly, in 1940 there were only 12,000 skins. Two very different, arbitrary annual export figures are striking: for the 1925/26 season there were 71,629 skins, for the following season 1926/27 only 22,836 are given.

Because of the strong decline in the population due to overhunting and the cultivation of the steppe areas , Kazakhstan imposed an absolute hunt for the corsair fox from 1928 to 1938. It was forbidden to destroy the burrows "in order to use it" meaningfully " in the Soviet Union as a fur animal and" antagonist "in the household of nature ."

After the Second World War , imports were no longer worthwhile because the fashion of long-haired fur heavily neglected, the era of the Persian and later of the mink fur had dawned. By 1960 the total had risen again to 27,000. In 1988 no more recent figures were available. At that time, the deliveries were mostly from Mongolia and Korea, they are mainly in the trade as Mongolian kit foxes . The Parisian fashion house Chombert showed corsak fox pelts under the fur name “Karaganda” -Kidfuchs (in this spelling, with “d”), named after Qaraghandy , a city in Kazakhstan. As early as 1952, the Frankfurt tobacco shop Richard König mentioned kid foxes (with "d"), which come from the Tsinkiang area and are similar to the Russian Korsak. At the same time, he named large, light-colored Korsukskins from Inner Mongolia, which at the time were mostly traded via Russia.

The raw hides are usually pulled off round, with the hair facing inwards.

processing

Jacket from Korsakfuchswammen (2010)

Since the largely general introduction of the fur sewing machine around 1900 (invented around 1870), it has been possible to change the shape of the skins as required by so-called skipping at economic costs . With this, narrow V- or A-shaped cuts can also be used to cut corsair skins in any desired length, up to floor-length evening gowns, at the expense of the width.

As with almost all types of fur, the remains of the corsak pelts are put together into bars and are sold as so-called bodies for further processing. The main place for the recycling of the fur residues in Europe is Kastoria in Greece as well as the smaller town Siatista , which is located nearby , but the tablets with the almost white corsair fox sponges come from Asia. The long paws and the white dewlaps are put together to form very attractive panels, mainly for fur lining , but also often for fur clothing with the hair facing outwards (see photos). The tails serve as pendants for key rings, bags, etc., and also as boas when fashionable .

For the southern origins of Kazakhstan , Turkestan and the Caucasus , it is stated in 1970 that these flatter and more reddish skins are mostly only used in dyed condition. Popular colors were blue and silver fox.

The skins are mainly used for large-scale clothing, for jackets and coats as well as for fur blankets .

statistics

• The world harvest of corsair fox skins in the late 1920s and early 1930s amounted to 26,000 to 50,000 skins. Over 50 percent of this came from Mongolia, the smaller half from the USSR .

State of Corsican fur in the Mongolian People's Republic from 1958 to 1968

1958	1959	1960	1961	1962	1963	1964	1965	1966	1967	1968
34,600	36,000	45,400	39,658	33,057	37,756	41,900	42,225	38,613	39,919	41,840

• The highest number of fur in the Mongolian People's Republic determined up to 1965 was in 1947 with 62,926 pieces.

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 numbers are ambiguous; in addition to the subjective observations of durability in practice, there are also influences from fur trimming and 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.

See also

Commons : Corsican skins  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Corsakskin Apparel  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Fox fur processing  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Other types of fox fur
• fur
• Furrier

Individual evidence

1. ^ ^{A b c} Christian Franke / Johanna Kroll: Jury Fränkel ´s Rauchwaren-Handbuch 1988/89 . 10. revised and supplemented new edition, Rifra-Verlag Murrhardt, p. 142
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Dr. Heinrich Dathe , Dr. Paul Schöps, with the collaboration of 11 specialists: Fur Animal Atlas . VEB Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena, 1986, pp. 133-135
3. ^ Also in Franke / Kroll, Rauchwaren-Handbuch : On the durability of fur . P. 359
4. ^ Emil Brass : Useful animals of East Asia . J. Neumann Verlag, Neudamm 1904, p. 19
5. ^ Marxist's Internet Archive, primary source Soviet Union Information Bureau. Retrieved February 3, 2012
6. ↑ excerpt from an Italian fur trade magazine. Caption: Motivi a "V" anche per le volpi. Due pellicce in volpe miele Karaganda. Deux manteaux en renard miel du Karaganda. Two coats in honey Karaganda kid fox. Two coats made of honey colored Karaganda fox. Model Chombert, Parigi. Undated.
7. ↑ Richard König : An interesting lecture (report on the trade in Chinese, Mongolian, Manchurian and Japanese tobacco products). In: Die Pelzwirtschaft No. 47, 1952, p. 50.
8. ↑ Fritz Schmidt : The book of the fur animals and fur . FC Mayer Verlag, Munich 1970, p. 203
9. ^ Friedrich Lorenz: Rauchwarenkunde , 4th edition. Volk und Wissen publishing house, Berlin 1958, p. 81
10. ^ FF Aliew: Fur animal populations in the wild . In: Das Pelzgewerbe 1971 Vol. XX New Series No. 6, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin a. a., p. 11
11. ↑ N. Dawaa, M. Not, G. Schünzel: About the fur animals of the Mongolian People's Republic (MVR) . In: Das Pelzgewerbe Neue Episode 1971 issue 1 vol. XXI, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Frankfurt / Main a. a., p. 12
12. ↑ N. Dawaa, M. Not, G. Schünzel: About the fur animals of the Mongolian People's Republic (MVR) . Primary source Stubbe, 1965