Cross fox fur

Galonized cross fox jacket (2010)

A characteristic feature of the cross fox fur is the black or dark cross-like markings over the neck and shoulders, the back and sides are pale or brown-yellow, reddish or dark brown, often heavily silvered. The “cross fox”, also known as the “spotted fox”, is a color variety of the red fox .

The fur trade counts the cross fox fur to the so-called " noble fox fur ", as well as the silver fox fur , the blue fox fur and the arctic fox fur .

The cross fox is widespread almost only in countries where there are also silver foxes, in Alaska , Canada , Eastern Siberia and Kamchatka ; other furs are now being bred. The incidence of wild fur was always small, if only because of the smaller occurrence compared to other fox species.

hide

Cross fox skins

The cross fox fur , with its considerably varying color of dominant red and recessive black, stands between the silver fox fur and the red fox fur . Like the silver fox , the cross fox is a subspecies of the red fox.

With its considerably fluctuating color, the fur shows transitions to both the red and the silver fox. In its darkest types it is very similar to the silver fox fur, some in turn come very close to the red fox fur. MacKendrik distinguishes five color types in the wild cross fox.

A characteristic feature is the black, or at least dark, cross-like drawing between the front paws, which spreads over the neck and shoulders. The back and sides are tinted pale or brownish yellow, reddish or dark brown, often with a strong silvering. The chest and belly side sometimes have more light, sometimes almost dark gray colors.

The best American strains come from the Labrador Peninsula and the Hudson Bay area. They often show beautiful, clear and contrasting colors and have excellent coat quality.

When fur animals are divided into the fineness classes silky, fine, medium-fine, coarse and hard, the cross fox hair is classified as fine.

trade

Left Norwegian, right Canadian cross fox fur

From the beginning of the 20th century to the 1940s, fur fashion was still dominated by long-haired types of fur. At that time, cross fox skins fetched considerable prices, which were at times only slightly behind the astonishing proceeds for silver fox skins. With the trend towards flat-haired pelts at the beginning of World War II in 1939/40, at first the Persian and later the mink - in Germany only with the beginning of the currency reform in 1948 - the cross fox fur also experienced a long decline on the market. Around the 1970s, after the red fox, it slowly gained more attention again, along with other long-haired types of fur, especially for trimmings and hood trimmings. For this purpose, it has been increasingly used again on a larger scale since the 1990s.

Come here

A. The best American strains come from the Labrador Peninsula and the Hudson Bay area . The pelts are of excellent quality and often a beautiful, clear and contrasting color with a dense, soft undercoat and long, silky awns.

Canadian origins : YF - York Fort (approximately Alberta , Saskatchewan , Manitoba to western Hudson Bay), WA - West Arctic , EB - Eskimo Bay, FG - Fort George , MR - Moose River , LS - Lake Superior , CANA - Canada .

The classification according to size is the same as for the American red fox, see the article “Red fox fur” under → Raw assortments for red foxes .

Assortment of Hudson's Bay and Annings Ltd., London

Come from Canadian

Types : I & II, I & No. 2, II, III, IV, Damaged, Bastard

Colors : fine, dark, medium, medium pale, silvery, pale sl. silver, pale, ex pale

Asian skins are partly yellowish in color, often less silvered and less pronounced.

The Russian standard differentiates between cross foxes with a clearly cross-like pattern and Syvoduschka foxes , which are more reddish-brown and silver and have a dark brown undercoat, whose dewlap and chest are dark gray.

The distinction is made:

1. According to the softness of the hair:

a) silky b) less silky c) coarse

2. According to the density of hair growth:

a) particularly tight b) tight c) medium tight d) less tight

3. After varieties :

I. Variety: Full-haired, completely hairy, with dense, even upper hair on the entire surface of the coat and with dense undercoat; hairy tail.

II. Sort: Not quite hairy skins, upper and lower hair a little shorter, especially on the back; hairy tail.

III. Variety: half-grown (skins of the transition period in spring and autumn); Upper and lower hair thick but short. Little hairy tail.

IV. Variety: Short hair growth, undercoat dense but short, dewlap also short hair.

The skins are pulled off round, with the hair facing out, delivered.

In 1950 it was said for Russia: " The provision of cross foxes, which occur in spring and summer, and the trade in such furs is prohibited ".

breed

Cross fox collar (2006)

The question of how this color scheme of the red fox comes about has long been controversial. Investigations in the American experimental farm Saratoga Springs and the Moscow zoo farm Puschkino clearly showed that it is a hybrid form of the red fox. Crustaceans cannot be bred purely, they repeatedly split into red, cross and silver foxes. For example, the mating Alaska silver fox and Canada silver fox, which behave genetically differently, create the so-called “patch fox”, which is more similar to the silver fox, but has gray and brownish markings on the shoulders and on the back. The crossing of the Alaska silver fox and the East American red fox results in animals with more beautifully colored and livelier fur. The crossing of the Canadian with the European silver fox results in the so-called bastard fox . The color is very different, there are all transitions from the red fox to the cross fox. Most of the time, however, there are slightly darker colors and drawings than the red fox.

Breeding of the cross fox began in the 1920s, the prime time of long hair fur fashion. However, when prices fell due to the global economic crisis , the breeders quickly lost interest. But 165 silver foxes from Alaska were released in Finland, among others, at the end of the 1930s and mated with the native red foxes, so that the hoped-for results were achieved. As mentioned, this pairing results in different hybrid foxes with all transitions from red fox to cross fox.

The Scandinavian breeder association Saga offers a type of fur with a "wild look" under the name Gold Cross Fox in limited numbers . The color varies from dark gray to dark red, always with a distinctive cross pattern.

processing

On the left a galonized cross fox duckling (approx. After 1990)

The cross fox fur is rarely made into coats and occasionally into jackets and fur blankets; it is mostly used for decorative trimmings and hood trimmings.

In 1762 the use for man's sleeves, clothes lining and cuffs is given.

Until around the 1970s, cross-fox coats and jackets were also not common, but the small percentage of large-scale Edelfuchs clothing roughly corresponded to the total volume.

With the so-called omission , since the introduction of the fur sewing machine around 1900, the shape of cross fox skins can also be changed as desired. Here, the skins are made into any desired length through narrow V- or A-shaped cuts at the expense of the width, up to a floor-length coat. With the fur- saving gallooning technique, pelts, mainly from foxes, are enlarged by inserting leather strips into the fur surface. The simultaneous loosening of the hair also takes place in the so-called air gallooning , in which the leather is scratched and the fur is pulled apart like a net.

In 1965, the fur consumption for a fur board with 16 to 20 pelts sufficient for a cross fox coat was specified (so-called coat “body” ). It was based on a board with a length of 112 centimeters and an average width of 150 centimeters and an additional sleeve section. 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.

As with most types of fur, every part of the fur is used by the cross fox. Fox chunks, fox sponges and fox paw panels are made from the leftovers during 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 . These semi-finished products are for the most part re-exported and then made into fur linings , jackets, coats and trimmings. Hood trimmings are created from the tails, they serve as pendants for key rings, bags, etc., and with appropriate fashion also as boas .

The processing does not differ significantly from that of other noble fox species, see above all the → processing and use of silver fox fur and → arctic fox fur , for the production of the once so popular animal-shaped fur scarves → the work of a red fox necklace .

As a rule, cross fox skins are used undyed.

Imitations

Red fox skins in particular were dyed like a cross fox in times when the cross fox was particularly valued: " The hair is subjected to a stroke kill (10 cm³ ammonia in 1 l water), then the basic color (primordial color ) is painted ... This basic color is left some Oxidize and dry for hours. Then the top color is painted on with the help of stencils; also the cross. "

Numbers and facts

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

Emil Brass : From the realm of fur. 1st edition, published by the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1911.

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 ( digitized version  - Internet Archive ).

Milan Novak et al, Ministry of Natural Resources: Wild furbearer management and conservation in North America. Ontario 1987, ISBN 0-7778-6086-4 . (English)

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, ISBN 0-7729-3564-5 . (English)

• In 1855 the Hudson's Bay Company sold 786 cross fox skins worth a total of £ 4,838; in the same year from Alaska, Canada and other countries 920 skins worth £ 2,740.

• In 1875 there were 786 skins from the lands of the Hudson's Bay Company, valued at £ 3870; that same year from Alaska, Canada, Oregon and the Northwestern States, bought by retailers and sold in London, 1,451 skins valued at £ 6,587.

• 1891 to 1910

Import list of American cross fox skins by the Hudson's Bay Company in London 1891–1910

1891	1892	1893	1894	1895	1896	1897	1898	1899	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906	1907	1908	1909	1910
2656	2415	2622	2791	4657	6240	5838	4845	3210	1359	1255	1704	1842	2195	3626	4998	5444	3173	1777	1377

• 1891 to 1906

Import of American cross fox skins through CM Lampson & Co. , London 1891–1906

1891	1892	1893	1894	1895	1896	1897	1898	1899	1900	1901	1902	1903	1904	1905	1906
2951	2363	3788	4020	8460	5106	5192	3410	4521	4531	2971	2771	2957	2929	2878	5527

• 1907 to 1910

Imports of American cross fox skins for the London auctions 1907–1910

1907	1908	1909	1910
3749	3652	3297	2759

• Before 1911 America supplied 15,000 cross fox skins, Siberia around 3,000 pieces.

• 1911

Price list for cross fox skins at the Hudson's Bay Co. auction March 1911

• Before 1944 , the maximum price for cross fox skins was:

best RM 185; middle 185 RM; low 25 RM.

• In 1947 45,145 American and 3,000 Asian cross foxes came to the auctions. The average free trade load at that time was believed to be 50,000 to 70,000 American and 5,000 to 7,000 Asian pelts. In 1949 the maximum price was $ 12.50.

• In 1988 exact figures on the amount of fur were not available, but it was probably only a few thousand pieces, most of them from the wild.

• In the 2011/2012 season, to the surprise of the trappers, the price for the best cross fox skins had risen by up to 135 percent compared to the previous year, for example it was at the auction of the company Fur Harvester Auction Inc., at an average price of 62.84 dollars. at up to $ 100.

See also

Commons : Grisfuchsfelle  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Clothing made from gris fox skins  - 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 d e} Dr. Fritz Schmidt: The book of the fur animals and pelts . FC Mayer Verlag, Munich 1970, pp. 187-190.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d} Christian Franke / Johanna Kroll: Jury Fränkel's Rauchwaren-Handbuch 1988/89. 10. revised and supplemented new edition, Rifra-Verlag Murrhardt, pp. 151–152.
3. ↑ 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.
4. ^ Marie Louise Steinbauer, Rudolf Kinzel: Marie Louise Pelze . Steinbock Verlag, Hannover 1973, p. 118.
5. ↑ ^{a b c} Alexander Tuma: Pelz-Lexikon. Fur and rough goods. XIX. Tape. Verlag Alexander Tuma, Vienna 1950. Search words “Kreuzfuchs” or “Kreuzfuchsblende”.
6. ↑ Saga Furs: Sorting Gold Cross. ( Memento of the original from September 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved February 9, 2012. 
7. ↑ The Kirschner. In: JS Halle: workshops for today's arts. Berlin 1762, see p. 309 .
8. ↑ Paul Schöps among others: The material requirement for fur clothing. In: The fur trade. 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.
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Emil Brass : From the realm of fur. Publishing house of the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1911, pp. 341–352.
10. ^ Friedrich Malm, August Dietzsch: The art of the furrier. Fachbuchverlag Leipzig 1951, p. 44.
11. ↑ Trapping today, fur-prices, accessed February 9, 2012 .
12. ↑ Fur Harvester Auction Inc., Noth Bay Ontario: Sale results ( Memento from May 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed February 3, 2016.
13. ↑ Northwest Territories: First fur auction of the year sees price increases across the board ( Memento of the original from June 17, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) accessed February 10, 2012.