Mink fur

"Indigo" dyed velvet mink jacket (Düsseldorf, 2019)

The fur of the descendants of the American mink is now traded as mink fur in the tobacco trade ; the descendants of the European mink are strictly protected by the Federal Species Protection Ordinance. Animals taken from nature may no longer be imported for trade. Wildner pelts traded in Germany continue to come from North America, although the mink has also been naturalized in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe. However, today only a very small proportion comes from wild catches, almost all of the skins of the descendants of the American mink come from breeding. For the topics of animal welfare and animal rights in connection with fur production → see fur farm and → hunting .

The skins formerly known as Chinese and Japanese mink have been traded more correctly than Chinese and Japanese weasels since 1967, both and the Kolinsky, which was formerly also known as Siberian mink , see → Kolinsky fur .

General

Females are called in the tobacco product industry, the female mink, Males the male (formerly vanishingly approximately between 1950 and 2000, vixens and males ). The pelts are smaller, lighter and shorter-haired than the Males, which are about a third larger .

In terms of durability (load-bearing capacity) in terms of abrasion resistance and leather stability, mink is now regarded as the most grateful fur material. In the past, the otter skin , especially that of the sea otter, was accepted as the most durable type of fur. The sheepskin, which is also very hard-wearing in its good qualities, is difficult to compare and not taken into account.

The mink skin has dominated the international tobacco product market since the Second World War and "left a very specific stamp on it".

Until about the end of the 20th century, the mink was the fur most imitated by other types of fur. These were sold under names such as mink bisam , mink marble , mink weasel , etc.

History of mink fashion

The oldest known mink fur, 5th century, Austria

Little is known about the use of the mink and its fur in the early days of mankind; Bone finds that could provide a clue are not available or have not yet been clearly assigned to the mink. The furs that were traded by German merchants all the way to Smolensk in the 14th century also included the "Mynken". In 2002, in a salt mine in Hallein (Land Salzburg) on ​​the Dürrnberg, a roughly stripped mink fur from the 5th century BC ( Iron Age ) was found. For the origin "possibly the steppe zones of Eurasia" was assumed. At least since the Middle Ages , mink fur was mainly used for fur linings and trimmings.

From the catalog of Buchheim, Langensalza (1907)

In the late Middle Ages and especially in the Renaissance , fur shawls made from fur of the species of marten , the so-called zibellini , appeared in fashion for the first time . Probably only after the temporary end of this fashion, and probably wrongly too, they were called flea furs . It was assumed that the porters used them as flea traps. The fashion of the naturalized fur shawls known today as fur necklaces reached its peak in the period from before 1900 to the 1940s. But even after the Second World War, they were still very much in vogue. The term strangler was common for single-skin necklaces . Whether the marten-like mink, along with sable , tree and stone marten , were processed into zebellini in the Renaissance is difficult to tell from the old pictures. In modern times, however, the mink took a leading position among the fur necklaces alongside the fox among the previously used types of fur. Around 1900 the clothing catalogs of Europe and America showed scarves, necklaces, collars and sleeves in a very considerable selection and in all types of fur.

In 1682, the furriers from Schwäbisch Gmünd did not want to allow the master furrier Melchior Beringer from Aalen to sell not only other fur but also “nests”, hoods made of mink fur, at the fair. After asking colleagues in the cities of Nuremberg , Nördlingen , Dinkelsbühl and Esslingen , they had to realize that the Aalen furrier's behavior could not be forbidden.

First skipping of mink to the length of the coat, World Exhibition in Paris (Révillon Frêres company, Paris 1900)

The use for lining, collars and trimmings since the Middle Ages can only be assumed; the mink is specifically mentioned for the period after 1830, a re-emerging epoch of men's inner furs, and for 1858 for trimmings on plush and velvet coats. The dominance of the mink jacket and the mink coat in fur fashion in the last few decades began around 1870 after the invention of the fur sewing machine . Now it was possible to economic costs by omitting to process mink pelts into narrow strips. At the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 , Révillon Frêres showed the first exuberant large-scale mink clothing, including a floor-length coat made of 164 Canadian mink skins and an otter skin (see picture, " Unfortunately , the photographic reproduction only gives an imperfect picture of this masterpiece "). However, these parts were still entirely hand-sewn, which required a working time of 1400 hours for the seamstresses alone. The fur sewing machines, driven by foot pedals, initially captured so much fur in the seams that they could not be used for sewing the narrow strips, but “only for the production of rough work, especially for the production of fur linings”.

In the first decade of the 20th century, the North American Indians began the regular hunt for the mink, the American mink, which today, after being bred, largely dominates high-quality fur fashion. In the early 19th century, the fur traders bought the minks, but only in order not to spoil it with the deliverers and then weeded out the furs as undesirable. In the late 1920s, the American mink was the main type of fur in fashion shows, at least in the United States.

The opposite of omission is the full-skin processing and the half-skin processing, in which the skins are used largely unchanged, in their natural form. The inexpensive cross processing of the skins was developed in the 1920s. Apparently it had not really caught on at the time, in 1961 a trade journal reported under the heading “Manufacturing process for mink coats 50% cheaper!” That with this supposedly new process, one only needed five instead of three weeks of working time to manufacture a coat. A message that caused quite a stir in specialist circles. First quality mink coats would now cost only £ 799 (DM 8948, -) ​​instead of £ 1,600, and lower quality coats even only £ 485 (DM 5430, -).

Mink breeding, which is now advanced, created the basis for fur for broader circles of society; around 1920 they were ready to provide larger quantities of mink fur. As recently as 1945, the breeding mink did not play an essential role in the world fur trade. By 1950, its share had risen to 10 percent, from 1955 to 1960 to 25 to 30 percent and from 1965 to 1970 to over 70 percent of total tobacco sales. During the economic miracle in 1950, the Federal Republic of Germany developed into the main consumer country for fur. In the GDR there were soon quite considerable mink breeds, but their skins were exported as foreign currency earners until the end, and there was no GDR mink fashion of its own.

Initially the main material in the FRG was the Persians , which was replaced by the even higher status symbol mink in the 1970s with increasing income.

Marie Louise Steinbauer points out two special circles of mink lovers in her book “Fur”: “ Such a 'dearly smelling' white mink was soon part of the standard equipment of a reputable stripper ... This is how the 'priestesses of Venus' protect themselves, as they did in antiquity were called poetic, preferably with warm furs. They have a particular fondness for fur jackets, or at least very short coats. In addition, they put the entire animal world on display: muskrat , nutria , karakul , rabbit , the successful mink ” . They didn't necessarily have to be new for the ladies, the first second-hand fur shops appeared, a used mink coat in a Hamburg auction house cost 1,500 to 3,000 marks plus a 15 percent fee.

Dark mink coat (GDR, 1954)

After, twenty years later, almost every woman who wanted it and could afford it had one or more mink jackets and coats, the market was saturated with falling prices . For the lower income groups, very large numbers of mink paws, heads, tails and other pieces of mink were sold by the specialist trade, but above all by the department stores and textile wholesalers. The nimbus of the exclusive symbol of regained prosperity was gone. The mink had meanwhile pushed other types of fur into the background, a series of warm winters and protests by parts of the animal welfare movement did the rest, also causing the remaining fur sales in the Federal Republic to decline considerably. In the meantime, despite the historically largest deliveries, the price of mink fur has risen to such an extent due to the strong demand from Russia and Asia that it is only rarely sold on the non-Russian European market (as of 2013).

The mink found its way into men's fashion quite late and usually only half-heartedly. It can be assumed that since the Middle Ages it has always found a certain use for fur lining and trimmings among the upper classes, in addition to other types of fur. The Italian Anna Municchi mentions the mink for the first time in her history of men's fur in 1952, when Brioni created the “Schelm”, a tuxedo with black mink trim. Other designers also began to get involved in men's fur. With the fashion of the unisex , the same outfit for him and her, the complete mink coat also became more and more wearable, at least for fashion-brave men. Jole Veneziani , " Queen of the industry, who has brought every possible effort into fashion for women, uses - quite consciously - only very discreet, exquisite and moderate paletots for the men's wardrobe: double-breasted dark saga mink, processed with whole skins " . Dior had a Chesterfield coat made of American lunaraine mink. The performance of the American entertainer Liberace in a white, floor-length mink coat with four flounces was intentionally striking . Nevertheless, the gentlemen clearly preferred the more rustic types of fur, such as wolf , raccoon or spitznutria . The classics are still very successful today: the mink blouson in the style of a pilot's jacket, the Russian earflap hat Ushanka made of mink fur and the mink or velvet mink-lined fabric coat.

With the braiding technique for skins developed before 1990, accessories made of mink and mink tails became popular again after 2000. Among other things, scarves, fur stoles and vests, which are characterized by a new, flowing look similar to knitwear.

European wild mink

Of the mink, which was formerly at home all over Europe, there are now substantial remnants only in parts of Eastern Europe, the IUCN lists it as "endangered". At least before 1988, fur deliveries came from the Soviet Union and from the river basin of the Danube Delta in Romania.

Black mink coat in "up and down" processing. Every second, omitted strip of mink is "overturned", with the hair up, worked (2011)

The fur length of the European wild mink is 35 to 40 centimeters, the tail is 12 to 16 centimeters long. As the only subspecies, the Caucasian wild mink reaches a length of 38 to 44 centimeters and a tail length of 16 to 20 centimeters. A particular characteristic is the white upper lip, which the American relative lacks; occasionally, like the American mink, it has white spots on the throat and chest. The coat color is always very dark, almost blackish ("generally darker than the wild American mink" (Wallmeyer)), the undercoat and the upper hair are often somewhat coarse and stiff, so that they were rated significantly lower than the 1900s American mink. The skins of West Siberian origin are somewhat fuller in the undercoat and thicker in the hair, but they do not achieve the quality of the American mink.

In summer, populations of the Altai Mountains have an awn length of around 17 millimeters on their backs and wool hairs of just under 10 millimeters. There is an average of 17,450 hairs on 1 cm². There are 16 to 22 wool hairs per guard hair.

• The Russian tobacco product standard distinguishes between Western, Northern, Central and Caucasian according to origin; according to quality in I., II., and III. Sorts. The first type is white-leather winter goods, "Ledjanka" (ljod = ice). The blue-leather skins with less smoky tails are sorted into the second type. The third, blue-leaved variety with a thin tail is called "Snopowka" (snop = sheaf of ears).
• European varieties (Scandinavia etc.) are sorted into dark brown, brown and light brown, the deliveries in 1988 were designated as insignificant.

Around the beginning of the 1940s, around 30 to 40 thousand European wild mink skins came on the market. By around 1940, these deliveries at Russian auctions had increased to between 70 and 75 thousand units. Of these, 15% came from Karelia , 4% from the Urals , 20% from Western Siberia , 25% from Central Russia , 10% from Ukraine and 15% from the North Caucasus.

In addition, American (wild) mink has been successfully naturalized in some areas of Europe and Asia, for example in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Karelia , in the Middle Urals , in the Altai , in the Far East and other parts of Russia, others escaped from breeding. As early as 1961, an estimated 18,000 wild mink were caught during intensive hunting in Sweden alone.

Mink, American wild mink

North American wild mink fur

The fur of the American mink is much larger than that of the European mink. It has no white upper lip, but in the wild form mostly light to white throat and chest spots, which are rarely found in European mink. In its large distribution area, in North America almost from the Arctic Circle to the Gulf of Mexico , the Mink forms a number of subspecies that differ significantly in size, body structure and hair structure. For example, while minks live in the Yukon basin with a body length of 70 to 80 centimeters, the Canadian subspecies only reach a length of 30 to 40 centimeters. The color varies from a very dark, almost black brown to "clay-colored". The summer coat is shorter-haired and less dense and shiny than the winter coat.

The farther the hides come from the south, the lighter they become. They also lose smoke, which means that the hair becomes flatter and the hair less dense. More skins from inland are silky, darker and shorter-haired than those of animals near the coast. Canadian varieties are lighter in leather, southern ones are heavier. Eastern Canadians are the best, with the possible exception of a small number from northern Maine. These skins are very silky in the hair structure, dark in color and have a beautiful shine that cannot be matched by those in other areas. The closer the attack areas get to the Rocky Mountains, the larger the fur, but the less the hair quality and the worse the color. In the western regions, beyond the Rocky Mountains along the Pacific coast, there is a very short-haired but large species, some of them with quite good color. The most typical of this type come from British Columbia and Alaska. The further the attack areas get to the west coast, the less intensely colored the skins are.

The skins from the United States are far different than those from Canada. A variety comes from the northeastern United States that is pretty much the same as the good eastern Canadian one. The further east and south the origin, the smoker and poorer in color the skins become. In the south, into the states of Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska, the type known collectively as North-Western can be found . It is usually very large, has long, coarse awns, and the undercoat is also very coarse. In general, the fur becomes coarser and coarser the further south one penetrates through the middle states of the USA.

The central southern states of the USA, mainly Minnesota, have more furs than other states. This Southern or Salt-Walter type is a little smaller than the Central Continent type, but is a good size. The color variants range from a red-brown to yellowish to an almost orange tone. The skins from the French Settlement around Lake Maurepas east of the Mississippi are different. The skins from this freshwater marshland are often so dark here that they can be confused with those from the northern regions.

Very smoky and long-haired pelts come from the scenic flat areas of the USA, while a wild mink occurs along the Pacific coast, which is similar to the type of the western Canadian coast.

The Hudson's Bay Company , founded in 1670, divided Canada into 16 areas and described the type of fur found there for each of these areas. Records from 1777 know eleven different North American mink "races"; in 1930 five were ultimately specified as subspecies of the American mink .

When it comes to quality assessment, retailers differentiate between Ones (No. 1), Twos (No. 2), Threes (No. 3), and Fours (No. 4), with the hair quality being the decisive criterion.

In the Ones , the hair is well developed, the guard hair covers the undercoat well and the coat is full and shiny.

Twos often have a bluish leather, mostly these skins come from the beginning of spring. These skins often do not have any elastic leather after dressing , and the hair often becomes crooked during the tanning process.

Threes are usually no longer usable, they are skins that come from the early autumn or late spring. The hair, especially the undercoat, is generally poorly developed.

Fours are skins from early summer or from sick animals.

The sorting usually takes place after the skins have been prepared. They come loose packed in boxes, then in lots, the so-called lots on the tobacco market. A distinction is then made between the first choice = Choice Dark, the technically “blue” skins; den Darks = dark, Dark Brown = dark brown; Brown = brown; Pale = bright and Red = (technical language) red.

• According to origin (provenances):

North East (Canada)

Labrador : Very smoky, finest varieties. Small to medium in size; very fine silky to deep dark blue-black.

Nova Scotia (Halifax): As fine as Labrador, but smaller.

York Fort (about Alberta , Saskatchewan , Manitoba ): Medium in size; fine silk; very dark, almost blue-black.

Mackenzie River : Large, lightly colored, bluish blonde skins with silky, short hair.

Northwest (USA)

Alaska : Very big, bigger than other varieties. Less silky, strong; mostly dark. Good ones from the Kenai Peninsula district . Mostly delivered with the hair on the outside.

Yukon: Even bigger; fine silk; very dark, almost blue-black. He is referred to as "ingens", "the mighty". Its hair structure is considered one of the best origins.

"Kuskokwin", a natural pastel-colored mink, comes from the tundra region of central Alaska, which is rich in lakes . Because of the size and density of its fur, it was used for breeding "after it was only caught alive in a few specimens a few decades ago (1988) ".

west

Southern Alaska, Lower California : Large; less silky; medium brown.

Central states (Centrals)

Minnesota and North Dakota : Particularly large; coarse silk; medium brown to dark black. In parts of Central Western so-called cottons with light, little covered under hair.

Southern states

Carolina : smoker; slightly darker; less heavy-leather; however smaller; coarser, more stuffy in the hair.

Louisiana : Medium-sized, less fine-haired; medium colored.

Mississippi Delta : Grosser; very light, yellowish to brownish; light quality. The skins are considered to be of the lowest quality, they are called "fish-mink".

Florida , Georgia , Alabama : Very flat, thin in hair, "clay-colored" ("lutensis").

Eastern states

North Carolina , Georgia , Pennsylvania : Less fine-haired; but always pretty dark. Sometimes the skins are larger and coarser in the hair.

• Assortments

Hudson's Bay Company and Annings Ltd. London sort by

Origin : YF (York-Fort), MKR (Mackenzie River), WA (West Arctic), EB (Eskimo-Bai), MR (Moose River) East (East), MR West, LS (Upper Lake) & CANA (Canada) , LS & MR, NW Coast, Alaska, USA

Types : I, I & No. 2, II, III, IV, damaged, specimen. In 1987, the Hudson's Bay Company brought skins to the market for the farmers who remained with it for the first time under the quality label "Ultra".

Colors : exexdark, exdark, dark, medium, pale, pt. Pale

Mink stole (USA 1919)

In contrast to the cultivated mink, the wild mink does not have a brownish, but a bluish undercoat.

As mentioned, the size of the fur and the quality of the hair are closely related in wild mink. About the sizes according to origin can be summarized roughly as follows: The smallest come from the group of Eastern Minks, the eastern wild mink, they increase in size the further they come from the southern sections. It is the other way around for the type from central North America. The largest mink here comes from the Great Lakes area and it decreases in size the further south it comes from. The largest pelts from the eastern sections are no larger than the medium-sized ones from the Central American mink.

The skins are delivered rounded, usually with the hair facing inwards. They are traded in their raw state in free trade and via auctions.

The durability coefficient for silky skins, including Canadians, is 50 to 60%, for coarser skins 60 to 70%. As early as 1913, an English furrier went beyond this with his assessment, he wrote about the wild mink: "They are extremely easy to wear, in fact they are among the most portable furs I know." The fur animals are divided into the fineness classes silky, fine, medium-fine , coarser and hard, the hair of the Russian mink and the origin from the southern USA are classified as medium fine, especially that of the fishmink from the southern USA as coarser. The breeding mink is not mentioned in this list.

American statistics put the incidence of wild mink from the USA and Canada in 1974/75 at around 350 thousand pelts. In comparison, the incidence in the Soviet Union amounted to 30,000 in the 1973/74 season, none of which were exported. In the years that followed, the North American attack fluctuated between 300 and 400 thousand pelts, almost a third of them from Canada.

Furthermore, in Europe and Asia, pelts from naturalizations and from minks that have escaped from farms are now being produced. American wild minks were settled in Russia and the Far East (1939, in the Ussuri-Amur region). From Sweden, skins from animals that have escaped from farms are offered. There is also a considerable population in Central Europe today. However, there is almost no hunting in Germany. The causes are the temporarily low price of fur and the legal hunting restrictions . Probably the most important buyer of German wild goods is offered a maximum of 50 skins a year, mostly of low, poorly colored quality, which are mainly dyed black and then processed into trimmings (2010).

Large varieties are often made into small items such as trimmings and scarves, and previously also into necklaces, while medium-sized, light-leather varieties are made into jackets and coats. While the selected quality wildner ore was formerly considered to be particularly exquisite, there has been little interest in it in Germany in recent decades (2010).

The best colors come from the north, around 45 ° north latitude. The middle color varieties come from the area between the 45th and 50th parallel, they have a brownish color. A red-brown type is found from the 35th parallel to the south.

section	XL *	L arge *	M edium *	S mall *	colour	hair
Eastern	28	26th	22nd	20th	dark blue brown	silky
Ontario	30th	27	24	22nd	blue brown	silky
Northern Canada	33	28	25th	22nd	blue brown	silky
Carolina	30th	25th	22nd	20th	dark brown	medium coarse
Minnesota	34	29	25th	23	brown	rough
Iowa	31	27	24	22nd	medium brown	rough
Central	30th	26th	24	22nd	light brown	very coarse
Louisiana	30th	26th	24	22nd	red-brown	very coarse
Coast and British Columbia	32	28	26th	23	dull brown	silky and thin
* All measurements are given in American inches (1 inch = 2.54 cm)

Sea ore

Little is known about sea ​​ore , which became extinct in the 19th century due to excessive hunting . He lived on the North American Atlantic coast, the last specimen is said to have been shot in New Brunswick in 1894 .

It was similar to the closely related American mink, but was significantly larger. The length of the head body is estimated at 66 centimeters, plus a tail that is around 25 centimeters long. The fur was coarser and more reddish than that of the American mink.

The breeding mink

At the tobacco shop:
A mink fur is stretched (2012)

The breeding of the American mink began in North America before 1900 and had already reached considerable proportions by 1920. The first farm animals were sold to Europe around this time. However, until after the end of World War II , it did not have the scope of breeding silver foxes . By this time, the fashion of long hair had declined and the mink began to dominate fur fashion.

The first mink coat made from German breeding mink was made in 1931. The women's coat was made from 105 skins from the Fürstenried mink farm in Unterdill near Munich. Production was carried out by the Munich company Bernhard Bauch, where the coat was displayed for a while in the shop window together with live animals before it was sold in Paris.

Assessment of the new, long-haired mink type "Sa Belle" (1975)

American breeds of long-haired fur types (started around 1950) such as SAMI mink (1958, from sable and mink, English sable and mink); Awns two and a half to three times, the undercoat twice as long as that of the well-known farm and wild mink or KOJAH (also similar to sable, first offered in 1968 with around 5000 skins) could not establish themselves on the market despite the record prices at the beginning. There have been successful attempts to cross them with mutation malts, via longer-term marketing of the also under the name Sa Belle. Breeding results with fluffy undercoat and fewer awns, which were first offered in Germany in 1975 and described as improved, apparently nothing has become known.

1974/75 the world supply of farm mink skins was almost 24 million, of which 12 million were standard mink. The naturally colored brown cultivated ores are traded under this name. The term came up, actually to differentiate it from wild mink, a few years after the Second World War. After ever darker-colored minks were bred, the more meaningful names Darknerz and Blacknerz have increasingly prevailed instead.

The specialist literature does not give a comparable durability coefficient extra for the breeding mink. It can be assumed that the shelf life of today's best qualities is well above that of American wild mink, close to the 100 percent assumed for sea otters.

Mink colors and other differentiations

Scandinavian mink colors (2008)

The throat stain that is characteristic of the American mink has now generally completely disappeared through breeding, and now there is almost never a small residual stain left. Typical for the marten family are the sprinkles of white guard hair and tufts of white woolly hair that are more or less present in the various pelts and are distributed over the entire fur. In the case of standard mink, the white awns were regarded as a characteristic of a natural-colored hide. There are still such minks, but as a rule they have hardly any white hair today (2010).

Color mutations occurred again and again in fur farming , of which around twenty to thirty colors, shades of color, or speckles gained a larger market share. The number is subject to constant change depending on supply and demand. After the number of variants resulting from the planned combination and crossing of the colors was estimated at just under two hundred as early as 1988, the number should now be significantly higher.

Men's jacket with velvet mink lining
(Bern, 2016)

With the breeding of mutation colors in the mink, mutation breeding became important in the tobacco industry for the first time, until then attempts were made to successfully breed the purest possible type of mink. The result was the standard mink. The first mink mutation became known in Canada in 1929. If a new, appealing color comes onto the market, it is only of interest to retailers with an available quantity of around 5000 skins. In the first few years, these ranges usually fetched exceptionally high prices. In 1950 the USA, which has always been the leader in mutation mint breeding, only supplied 30 percent of the skins in the classic dark brown color standard, Canada 40 percent.

For the German mink breeders and furriers, after the Second World War, it was probably the greatest surprise to see the extent and importance of mutation mink cultivation. At a May auction in London in 1957, more mutated skins were offered for the first time than standard skins, two years later the offer had more or less evened out.

The first coat made of silverblue or platinum mink was sold at a New York charity event for the record price of 18,000 dollars. This blue-gray hue was the first mutation color whose further breeding was carried out as planned on the farm of W. Whittingham in Wisconsin . The first known mink mutation occurred in Canada. However, due to the association's regulations on pure-bred, i.e. brown animals, the animal was separated.

Another early mutation is the steel blue Aleutian mink . Both colors, Platinum and Aleutian, came from litters whose parents were wild caught. Crossing the Aleutian mink with the platinum mink resulted in the blue-gray sapphire mink , the proceeds from the first coat generated 36,000 dollars, the second coat was given to Evita Perón , wife of the Argentine President Juan Perón .

The mutation that appeared in a Canadian farm in 1943 was called pastel mink , with a yellow-brown color and a slight blue sheen. The color pastel was very successful for many years until it lost its importance due to the breeding of darker shades of color.

The four aforementioned colors were the first of the traded mutation ores.

In 1947 the cream-colored palomino mink appeared in Karleby , Finland. Almost simultaneously, a similar tint appeared in the United States.

The color violet was announced in 1958 as a new mutation from the group of "Azurènes" by the Emba breeders' association with 1000 skins for marketing for the coming year.

• Silverblue reversible mink coat (Stuttgart, 2017)
• 

  Fabric side

• 

  Fur side

Kristin Scott Thomas with mink tail cape (2016)

The breeding organizations market their coat colors under sometimes different trade names. The following is a selection, if only because of the constant development of breeding, without claiming to be exhaustive.

	COPENHAGEN FUR; SAGA (separated since 2004)	EMBA (offered for the first time)	CMBA; NAFA (until the end of 2019)	American Legend
Natural black brown	Black; scanblack	Standard extra dark	Dark	Blackglama
Very dark natural brown	Mahogany
Natural wild mink light	Glow; Scanglow		Wild types
Natural wild mink dark	Demibuff; Scanbrown		Demi
Natural brown	Pastel	Autumn Haze (1946)	Pastel
Natural light brown	Dawn	Desert Gold (1953)	Topaz
Natural light brown	Palomino (1947)	Diadem (1955)	Palomino
Natural light beige	Pearl (1942, breeder Carl Rappe)	Tourmaline (1956)	Pearl
Natural lavender beige	Lavender	Arcturus (1957)	Lavender
Natural blue beige		Morning Light (1960)
Natural gray	Silverblue	Argenta (1942)	Silver blue
Natural brown with a blue tint (1962: not asked )		Bluefrost (1945)
Natural dove gray	Hope	Aeolian (1958)	Hope
Natural dark gray, pale undercoat	Blue iris
Natural bronze gray	Aleutian	Lutetia (1948)	Aleutian
Natural blue	Sapphire	Cerulean (1951)	Sapphire
Natural pale violet	Violet	Azurene (1954)	Violet
Natural white	White	Jasmine (1947)	White
Natural white with black grunt (1962: not asked )	Black Cross (formerly Kohinoor)	Royal Koh-i-only (1945)
"with a brown grunt	Brown Cross
"with a gray grunt	Sapphire Cross
Natural white with black spots	Jaguar; (1960s) Finnjaguar
Natural dark brown with veil-like white tips	Black Crystal (Norka, Russia 2012)		Black Crystal

Browncross mink coat with leather inserts (2010)

In addition to other colors, there are numerous shades such as Pearl Beige (Saga), Golden Pearl (Saga), Pearl Cross (Saga), Sapphire Cross (Saga), Silver Blue Cross (Saga), Palomino Cross (Saga), Pastel Cross (Saga), etc. .

Dark Mink (Blackglama)

Greycross mink range

• American breeders were the first to breed a particularly short- awned black-brown mink type ("short nap ") (Blackglama, American Legend, Canada Majestic). In 1937 a Canadian mink breeder wrote: The short-haired pelts are currently in demand . With a thick, steel-blue, silky undercoat from which the abundant, short, deep dark brown guard hairs stand almost vertically in the air. These fine skins come as wild-caught from northeastern Quebeck, a district that can be found on the map as Ungava and which extends as far as the Arctic coast. Soon after the Second World War , the desire for this type of fur, accompanied by advertising campaigns by the North American breeding communities, began in Germany as well. In 1966, Scandinavian breeders acquired 20 American jet black minks for the first time. The Scandinavian skins are offered under the name Black Velvet. Since February 2014, Kopenhagen Fur has referred to this short-awned, American type with a dense undercoat of the Black Mink it trades as “AAA-mink”.

The mainly traded natural colors are currently:

• Black, Dark - the further breeding of the natural brown mink (standard mink) to almost black
• Mahogany - dark brown (between Demibuff and Dark)
• Demi Buff, Demibuff - medium brown (between pastel and standard)
• Pastel - (light) brown
• Pearl - beige
• Jasmine - white
• Blackcross, Kohinoor - white with a black center
• Wildglow - light wild mink color (first offered on January 31, 1982, 800 skins at a Copenhagen auction).

• Triple is the technical term used only for pearl ores for extremely pale skins (expale).
• Demibuff or Demi Buff are crosses of the standard mutations silverblue and pastel, "that is, a cross between recessive mutants of the brown with the blue type (unscientificly referred to as 'half blood', 'demi-sang')". In addition to the colors mentioned, demibuff minks are created in the litters, which are between dark pastel mink and dark mink.
• Ranch-Wild-Mink (ranched or farmed Wild Mink) are according to the definition of Jury Fränkel's smoking manual from 1988: Mink that are crossed for a special resemblance to the wild mink. They come from cross-breeding of different color types, for example royal pastel with sapphire etc. These wild-colored animals with a clear separation of the dark guard hair from the light under hair cannot be used for further breeding, they would then split up again into the different colors.

In 1987, a year before the publication of the last volume on the tobacco trade cited, the French mink breeder André Simon reported in a lecture to experts in 1987 how he brought farmed wild mink fur on the market in 1962, in 1964 for the first time in large numbers at an international fur auction. The skins came exclusively from newly caught American, original wild mink. On the one hand there were the Mackenzie (called Mittainville tribe), a cross of animals from the area of ​​the Mackenzie River , dark to medium dark; as well as the one around Kotzebue , the Minnesota , also called American , a cross between Minnesota- stemmed and Kuskokwim- stemmed mink, medium to light colored. Breeding in France quickly prospered and Simon exported breeding animals to many countries. If you follow André Simon's statement, then all wild-type mink or ranch wild mink offered in 1987 were based on this breed, which has been continuously improved through selection.

• Sprinklers are white skins, with varying amounts of dark to black hair scattered across them. In extreme cases, they look like a not quite distinctive cross mink, but they are auctioned as an extra variety.

By the 1990s at the latest, interest in the mutation mink colors decreased particularly, with a simultaneous decline in fur demand in general. In Italy in particular, colors similar to wild mink, such as demibuff or lunaraine, asserted themselves in addition to the dark and black shades. Almost at the same time, however, the proportion of fashionably dyed furs increased, for which predominantly light-colored pelts, up to white, were required.

• Breeders are skins from animals that have been shown to be unsuitable for breeding for whatever reason. While the normal occurrence comes to the auctions in the months of January and March, these are only felled and offered in March. Breeders are of good, strong quality, but have a yellowish, technically "pissed off" dewlap.
• Summer pelts are pelts that accrued later, in some cases also pelts of dead animals that have flatter hair, but otherwise are of a well-covered quality.
• Metallic is the name given to skins in which the upper hair has a metallic sheen because (the awns) are slightly curved, but not pointed.
• Cotton (gray wool; white wool; kobuk) are skins with a particularly light undercoat.
• Stewart are skins from crosses with completely white dewlap or with a white stripe.
• Lowgrades (inferior grades) is the name for poorer sub-varieties,

amongst other things

• Hippers ; Skins with obvious discoloration around the crotch in the hip and stomach area,
• Slippers ; Skins with bald patches reaching down to the leather,
• Bites ; bitten skins,
• Matted ; matted or knotted in the hair.

Organizations of mink breeders and their brand names:

• Copenhagen Fur (Denmark, Scandinavia): Copenhagen Purple, Copenhagen Platinum, Copenhagen Burgundy, Copenhagen Ivory
• Saga (Scandinavia): Saga Selected
• Blackglama and American Legend (North America)
• Canada Majestic (Canada)
• Amerimink , founded in 1970, mink breeder from the Northwest of the USA, represented by Joseph Liebergall & Co
• Norka (Russia)

Auction assortments

Mink pelts are traded almost exclusively through auctions on their way from the breeder to the wholesaler or producer. The skins are offered there in a very differentiated manner. The Denmark-based auction house Copenhagen Fur has now practically completely mechanized this process for mink.

Basically one differentiates

Males , skins of male animals. They are about a third larger, longer-haired and thick-leather, and thus somewhat heavier than the skins of female minks.

Females , skins of female animals.

The next classification is based on size , measured from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail.

Mink size classification of the auction house Saga Furs (2010)

Size classes, using the example of the auction company Saga Furs:

greater than	Size designation		greater than	Size designation		greater than	Size designation
95 cm	40		77 cm	0		59 cm	3
89 cm	30th		71 cm	1		53 cm	4th
83 cm	00		65 cm	2		47 cm	5

A classification of Saga using the example of pearl mink, if larger quantities are delivered, it can be differentiated even more: ⁽¹⁹⁸⁸⁾

Medium Saga Selected		XPale Saga Selected		Pale Saga Selected		XXPale saga
Medium saga		XPale saga		Pale saga		XXPale 1st quality
Medium 1st quality		XPale 1st quality		Pale 1st quality		XXPale 2nd quality
Medium 2nd quality		XPale Saga Selected		Pale 2nd quality

According to the purity of the colors , Saga distinguishes between five categories: Clarity 1 - blue, Clarity 2, Clarity 3 - brown, Clarity 4, Clarity 5 - red.

The hair lengths (of the top hair) classified saga in short, regular and long.

In 1970 the London auction house Anning, Chadwick & Kiver Ltd. American mink for the first time. The company then advertised: "In February 1970 Annings offered the largest collection of raw American mink ever offered 'hair outside' in the world".

Refinement

Colored Blackcross Mink (2009)

In the beginning, mutation and standard mink skins, including wild skins, as far as they were good in color, were always processed naturally. After the decline in the demand for mutation ores, dyed furs increasingly came onto the market, to a considerable extent in new colors. Skins that are not well colored or very poor quality have always been colored, mostly black.

In addition to dyeing, tobacco refinement has known several methods for improving apparently imperfectly colored pelts since ancient times. In the Middle Ages, re-dyeing as “cheating” was temporarily threatened with penalties; even today, fur advertised as “natural” should actually be undyed. Commercial custom is:

1. Reinforcing , natural color : Here the light undercoat is matched in color to the darker upper hair. It was used in particular on Russian mink, which in the early days often had a very light undercoat. The process of darkening using ferrous salts , which wasdeveloped by Australian wool researchers between 1946 and 1948,was first used by Italian refiners for nutria skins . The specialized trade regards the skins treated in this way as natural.
2. Double reinforcing : The chemical process used here is completely different from the above, the color of the undercoat is even more closely matched, and the coat becomes darker overall, recognizable by the darkening of the leather.
3. Beautiful ones : Not entirely pure white or cross-mink is given an opalescent (bluish-white) shimmer with optical brighteners or by blueing .

In America dressings (tanning) were developed, which resulted in a particularly thin and light leather. It was first used in the 1960s, not with the same success everywhere, but also in the other countries.

Velvet Mink

• 

  Ruched cashmere mink coat (Ingo Saar, 2009)

• 

  Mink-trimmed cape
  (Alessandro Michele for Gucci , 2019)

also soft mink , denotes a mink that has either been plucked, sheared, or plucked and then sheared. When plucking, the guard hair is removed down to the hair root. Very short-haired mink are also offered under the name cashmere mink or cashmere mink .

Velvet mink sweater and vest (2010)

Mink accessories

Braided sapphire mink scarf (2009)

Keychain in mink shape (2011)

Mink flowers left and right, a rabbit flower in the middle (2011)

2-fur mink necklace (around 1970)

Mink muff from Max Neuburger & Co, New York. With tails, paws and elaborate heads. (1910)

The de-awning by plucking the skins is among the Chinese for a long time known in Europe achieved this in 1796 at Seal skins for the first time the Englishman Thomas Chapman. Until about the 1960s and 1970s, however, plucking and shearing were almost exclusively used for hard-awned or not perceived as beautiful-awned types of fur, and until shortly after the Second World War, in order to imitate the more valuable seal skin with cheaper types of fur. In 1961 an American company tried to market shorn mink fur as a new trend item. She started selling 57 coats that cost between $ 1,800 and $ 2,200.

However, a specialist book reported as early as 1895: “When mink was particularly cheap a few years ago, it was also plucked many times (as far as the lightest varieties were concerned) and dyed brown in a seal-like manner to be used as a deceptive imitation of smaller things, e.g. B. hats, berets etc. to be processed ”. A decisive factor in the revival of the velvety fur fashion over the mink was probably the considerable drop in prices at the time, the market was relatively saturated and demand fell considerably. The velvet finishing of mink skins created a new product for the consumer, with a significantly lower weight than a seal coat and around a quarter lighter than an unpulled mink coat, at a relatively low price compared to the past.

Mink fur processing

• 

  Whole-skin mink processing for an inner lining (1895)

• 

  Mink fur with drawn outlet cuts, left in V-cut, right in A-cut (sketch)

• 

  Luftgalonieren of Mink (left mink, middle luftgalonierte leather side, right side Hair)

The classic processing of mink into coats and longer jackets has been the omission , the lengthening of the fur at the expense of the width through V- or A-shaped cuts since 1900 . This working technique creates narrow stripes in the length of the garment, which also has a particularly flowing drape. Complicated strip guides can also be implemented with this. The waistline of a coat is additionally emphasized by the also waisted stripes (see photo above).

Outlet sewing of a mink strip with a fur sewing machine (1986)

Sewing with the fur sewing machine requires great manual practice and skill. The brushing of the fur hair is usually done with the brush, a pointed steel pin, today mostly on the opposite side of a pair of tweezers (brushing tweezers). This work is carried out in larger furriers and in industry by specialized workers. In Germany it has always been fur seamstresses who were paid less than their male furrier colleagues. In the 1960s, Greek sewers came to Germany from the fur sewing town of Kastoria , they brought a new sewing technique with them. Instead of brushing the hair inch by inch, they sat leaning forward on the side of the sewing machine and using their thumbs and blowing the hair back to the side of the fur. This enabled them to sew through an outlet incision with almost no removal. Within a short time they had taken over the local mink sewing shop. Larger companies had "their Greeks" in their own business, others outsourced the sewing of the mink strips as wage labor.

With Galonieren the onset of narrow strips of leather is known in the fur. In the case of air gallooning , the surface area is increased by closely cutting the leather and then pulling it apart and fixing it into a net-like structure.

Cape made of Canadian mink fur in elaborate outlet processing (Paris World Exhibition, 1900)

For a number of years (as of 2010), braided or knitted furs, especially made of mink, have enjoyed great success in the past few years , in addition to the cheaper rabbit fur. This time-consuming but material-saving technology was originally developed primarily in Germany, America and Italy. In the meantime, the net scarves made in this way come almost exclusively from the low-wage country of China. To do this, the fur is cut into the narrowest possible strips, the minimum should be around three millimeters. The resulting fur thread is wound around the net threads in fish-net-like scarf nets. The side of the hair lies outwards, creating a surface that is hairy on both sides, similar in structure to knitwear. A mink jacket, for example, also has fur on the inside. It also produces large-scale mink clothing, including coats and blankets, but mainly small items such as scarves, stoles, vests and short jackets.

In addition, mink skins such as lambskin can be velouted or coated with nappa , in order to be processed into particularly light, possibly reversible, garments.

Pieces of mink

Typical street scene in Kastoria, Greece: a fur seamstress has put open mink paw bodies out to dry.

In almost all types of fur, even very small residues are used. This is particularly true of the mink. In terms of durability, the fur remnants are quite the same as the mink fur, for the most part they have a lower weight. The remains are collected in the workshops, traders buy up by the kilo and almost exclusively exported to Greece. The center of waste recycling has been Kastoria there since ancient times (see there) and, a little less known, the nearby town of Siatista . See the main article → Fur scraps .

Good mink paws are sorted into up to four hair length and eight basic color levels, with a distinction being made between front and rear paws. These are sorted and sewn into strips. These strips are sorted again and sewn together to form semi-finished fur products , the so-called bodies . The dimensions vary with the respective fashion, around 1990 a coat body was 230 centimeters wide and 118 m long. Today (2012) the mink pieces are also largely sheared velvet-like, following fashion.

Pieces of mink are processed separately into the following parts:

• Mink heads , extremely durable, thick leather and heavy
• Mink paws , separated into front and rear paws. The front paws are flatter, somewhat heavier compared to the rear paws.
• Mink thiliki , belly pieces
• Mink Nourkulemi , throat pieces , especially light, mostly with light spots
• Mink tails , if they are pre-made into bodies or boards, the trapezoidal shape is balanced out into a rectangle by sewing narrow, wedge-shaped leather strips in between. Between 1950 and 1980, the tails, which were also galonized, were often made into caps and trimmings. Currently (2010) they are used a lot for knitted small-part furs, recognizable by the longer and coarser hair compared to the furs knitted from fur threads. Mink tails with their hair structure, the awns protrude particularly far from the undercoat, are good for making small pieces of jewelry.

In 1965, the fur consumption for a fur board sufficient for a mink coat was specified (so-called coat "body"):

a) Wild Mink

Canada, Alaska

Males = 40 to 50 skins

Females = 60 to 85 heads

United States

60 to 90 heads

b) Farm mink (the mink bred today are on average larger, the fur consumption correspondingly lower)

Males = 45 to 50 skins

Females = 60 to 85 heads

Often times, males and females were also processed together (females for the sleeves). 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.

trade

1792, Dr. Johann Krünitz's economic-technological encyclopedia:

The minks come from Pohlen and Virginia, they are a kind of otter, Mustela Lutreola, which Gesner called Nerz or Nörz. In Russian the animal is called Norka. They are about the size of our polecats and have short auburn hair. They are used for rashes on women’s furs and hats. The room is available from 40 to 50 Rthlr. in prices.

1864, Heinrich Lomer , The smoke goods trade:

American minks are now valued at 3 to 10 thalers, while Russian minks are only worth 1 to 2 thalers per piece. The former have finer and therefore more durable hair. One can compare the hair of the American mink and Russian mink like silk and thread. Minks are used in Germany for fur linings and collars, in France for trimmings. Most recently, Americans have been using their beautiful minks themselves; while the men are embroiled in political rigors and the turmoil of war, the women seem to keep themselves warm in precious fur.

The mink fur did not always find today's great recognition. At times it had little value and was neglected by fashion. Daniel Harmon, a famous fur hunter of his time, made a list around 1800 with the comparative values ​​of the fur types. At the top was the beaver, followed by the otter, muskrat, marten, bear, lynx, fisherman, mink, wolf and buffalo. It should be noted that wolf and buffalo were not used for clothing, but for rugs and sled rugs, so the mink is at the lowest end of the range of skins worth mentioning. On the other hand, a recognized American expert in the industry wrote in 1976 that the mink has always been regarded as a luxurious fur, with mostly luxurious prices.

Between 1830 and 1840 the Hudson's Bay Company sold an average of around 20,000 skins annually at its auctions in London, and between 1850 and 1860 an average of around 46,000. Measured against the total volume of American tobacco products at the time, these were very small quantities. It was only with the introduction of the fur sewing machine around 1870 and the associated possibility of processing mink fur into narrow strips that the material caught on in fur fashion. In the decade between 1880 and 1890 the annual average rose to 620 thousand skins. In 1891 the "Nörz" was already " the furrier's favorite fur, because it is not only a very beautiful, elegant fur, but is also recommended for its level hair, beautiful color and great durability ". Shortly before the First World War , the total amount of wild mink from North America was about 1 million pieces.

World mink production

                1864      1900     1930
Europa         55.000   20.000    50.000
Asien                   50.000    20.000
Nord-Amerika  200.000  450.000   500.000
gesamt        255.000  520.000   570.000
 
Nach 1930 kam es allmählich zu Anlieferungen aus der Farmzucht,
1950 waren es etwa 3 Millionen Felle.

Trade today

Coat made of plucked, plaited mink velvet (Düsseldorf 2012)

Sorting of mink skins in the VEAB - the GDR's own collection and purchase company in Naunhof near Leipzig (1950)

Blue Iris Mink Skins with Barcode in the Auction House (2009)

Mink skins are mainly sold at auctions. Here they are sorted according to size and quality and combined in bundles ( lots ) are auctioned at the highest price.

The production of farm-bred mink fluctuates depending on demand. The largest increase took place between 1945 and 1965, with a worldwide annual increase of 1 million units. It peaked at 42 million in 1988, fell to 20 million in 1993, and then rose steadily to a new high in 2007 to 56 million, only to drop to around 50.5 million by 2010. The average price for a mink fur increased from a very low level by 112 percent to 42 US dollars between 2001 and the beginning of 2011 (in ten years) due to the strong demand from the newly added sales markets of Russia and China.

Retail prices for a coat around 1973:

• Mink (left out) between approx. 1750, - and 7500, - DM
• Super qualities such as Black Diamond and other top qualities approx. 12,000 to 18,000 DM
• Wild mink for around 25,000 DM

In comparison, a Persian coat cost between approx. 2950 and 9000 DM, a rabbit coat between approx. 350 and 1200 DM.

In 2016, more than 75 million grower pelts were sold worldwide with an estimated total value of 970 million US dollars.

Mink skins , including the fur remnants, are used for all conceivable fur clothing, natural or colored, for coats, jackets, trimmings, inner linings , scarves and headgear, but also for fur blankets , in jewelry, etc.

facts and figures

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

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

Emil Brass: From the realm of fur . 2nd improved edition. Publishing house of the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1925.

Emil Brass: From the realm of fur (1911) in the 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).

Short mink coat, colored, top part with burned-in pattern by lasers (Regensburg, 2016)

• 1872 Riche ( Wisconsin ) already kept 150 minks on his farm.

• 1926 There were 4 mink farms in Germany.

• 1927 There were 8 mink breeders in Germany. Mink skins cost 600 to 800 marks.

• 1928 In the meantime there were 23 mink farms (108 fox farms) in Germany.

Beginning of mink breeding in Denmark, breeding pairs cost 800 to 900 marks.

• 1929 Start of mink breeding in Norway and Sweden.

• 1930 There were 268 mink farms in Germany.

Foundation of the Danish fur breeders' association Dansk Pelsdyravl.

• 1931 The first official census of noble fur animals in Germany resulted in 7019 mink, 8593 silver fox, 1926 swamp beaver ( nutria ), 932 raccoons, 1508 karakul sheep ( Persians ).

The first mink mutation (platinum) appeared on the Whitingham farm in Arpin, Wisconsin.

• 1937 The population of mink in Germany was 14,588 animals, the total population in 1,434 farms was 49,955 fur animals, including 19,863 silver foxes, 376 blue foxes, 7337 swamp beavers, 1791 raccoon dogs .

• 1939 35,000 mink skins from German breeding came into the trade.

• 1942 Founding of the Silverblue Platinum Mink Association in Chicago.

• 1943 The Canadian Davids introduced the pastel mink in Toronto.

• Before 1944 , the maximum price for mink skins was:

Best 175 RM; medium RM 120; low RM 30; small RM 70.

• 1944 First auction of 2,277 platinum mink skins in New York at an average price of $ 149.

The year before that, the first platinum ore coat was sold in the USA for more than $ 25,000. Most of the skins came from the offspring of a male who had meanwhile made $ 30,000 for the breeder.

• 1945 First auction of Royal Koh-i-nur and Bluefrostner ore skins in New York.

• 1947 Foundation of the cooperative of Saxon fur breeders with 458 mink. The SAG- Plau, today Plau am See / Appelburg (operation of the Soviet military administration) had 300 minks.

• 1948 In the area of ​​the later GDR, 2,678 mink, 2,386 noble foxes and 38,480 nutrias were kept;

in the area of ​​the later Federal Republic of 3479 minks, 7264 noble foxes and 27,396 nutrias.

The EMBA trademark was registered in America .

• 1949 In December there were 3457 mink in 82 companies in the GDR.

• 1950s , successful settlement of Canadian mink in Siberia , the Altai region , in Bashkiria and Transcaucasia .

• 1950 In Plau / Appelburg (now under German administration), breeding began with 328 minks and 799 silver foxes.

• 1951 In the GDR there were a total of 760 mink.

• 1953 The now nationalized Farm Plau / Appelburg ("nationally owned enterprise)" owns 484 breeding dogs, 9 breeding males were imported from the GDR.

• 1958 58,191 mink, 4769 noble foxes and 99,282 marsh beavers were kept in the GDR.

In the Federal Republic of Germany at that time there were around 900, mostly younger companies that dealt with mink breeding. Even before the Second World War there were some areas in which fur farming was increased, especially silver foxes, for example in considerable numbers around Munich. Many of them perished in the war and post-war times. The new mink cultivars had mainly settled near the coast. Fish and waste products from the fishing industry were available here as inexpensive animal feed, and the humid climate was also viewed as favorable for skin development. More than 95 percent of all German mink farms were located there, with Schleswig-Holstein and the area around Bremerhaven and Cuxhaven having a particularly large number of farms. The ratio of mink kept on the farms was calculated to be about 70 to 75 standard mink and only about 20 to 35 mutation mink, the ratio was thus exactly the opposite of that in the meanwhile more developed breeding in the Scandinavian countries. There the mutation cultivation had almost reached the high American level.

• In 1960 the Mullen brothers from Nova Scotia , Canada had two unusually dark male mink puppies with dark undercoat, a light belly and a metallic sheen in their breed. Mullens called the color jet black . They and also Scandinavian breeders continued to pursue the line. A first mating with a mutation mink of the color palomino resulted in another interesting new color and suggested further new colors for crossing with other mutations.

• 1965 Around 90,000 mink, 5,000 noble foxes and 150,000 swamp beavers were kept in the GDR.

• In 1966 , 511 mink skins of a new black mutation color called "black willow" were auctioned in New York. 40 of these skins fetched a record price of $ 44,000. The buyer was the Neiman Marcus department store in Dallas (Texas).

• 1968 The population of fur animals in the GDR was 268,685 mink, 75,684 swamp beaver, 3369 noble foxes and 1349 chinchillas.

• 1969 Founding of a combined Scandinavian auction company by Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland in Copenhagen.

• 1971 The GDR's mink fur production companies merge to form the central mink fur product group.

• In January 1973 it was reported that China had received an order from J. & J. Mitehal (Newhailes) in Musselburgh in the Scottish county of Midlothian to supply 150 male and 150 female breeding malts . A second note reports that China is also successfully breeding mink in southern zones, in the province of Kiangsu (southern China), for the first time . The quality of the mink skins and their coloring would have met the usual standards.

• In 1974 , the director of the Plau-Appelburg fur farm noted that labor productivity had increased many times over since 1950. The total length of all mink scales lined up was, according to him, 20 kilometers.

• 1975/1976 :

• In 1985 there were around 13 million mink pelts in the USSR, of which 3.5 million were exported.

• 2005 to 2011 :

Ballerina Svetlana Zakharova with a full-skin processed mink coat (sheared) (2007)

• In 2012 , China's mink fur production was around 17 million pelts, Denmark's 15.6 million. World production has doubled in the previous ten years (59.1 million compared to 29.5 million in 2001).

• In 2013 , in Copenhagen Fur, 397 Males and 254 Females of the Moondust mink type came up for the first time at the April auction after the skins had been collected for several years. The color is described as a type of a mixture of the colors cinnamon and stardust , with white wool and white and black guard hair. The new type was created in 2006 on the farm of the Danish breeder Carsten Susgaard, where it was further developed.

• In 2015 , according to the International Fur Federation, the International Fur Federation, 71.27 million mink pelts with a total value of 3.57 billion US dollars were bred worldwide. This is an estimated value that results from multiplying the annual production by the average fur price.

See also

• fur
• Other types of fur
• Furrier

Web links

Commons : Mink Skins  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Mink Fur Clothing  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Commons : Mink Fur Processing  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Mink fur grinding machine on Youtube , accessed on June 7, 2011.
• Mink leather brushing machine on Youtube , accessed on June 7, 2011.

Wiktionary: Mink fur  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

literature

Gunnar Joergensen (eds.): Mink Production . ( → Table of Contents) , Danish Fur Breeders Ass. And Scientifur, Hilleroed 1985, (English). ISBN 87-981959-0-5 .

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 ambiguous; in addition to the subjective observations of shelf life in practice, there are also influences from tanning 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.

Individual evidence

François Barraud: Madame B .
Early depiction of a sapphire mink trim (1932)

Certificate of the acquisition of the first lot of a Russian mink auction in February 2019 by a German tobacco shop couple

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Fritz Schmidt : The book of the fur animals and fur. FC Mayer Verlag, Munich 1970, pp. 256-271.
2. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u} Christian Franke, Johanna Kroll: Jury Fränkel's Rauchwaren-Handbuch 1988/89. 10. Revised and supplemented new edition. Rifra-Verlag, Murrhardt, pp. 25-39.
3. ^ David G. Kaplan: The Fur Book. The National Cleaner & Dyer, New York 1950, p. 244 (English)
4. ↑ Real Lexicon of Germanic Antiquity. Volume 22, 2nd edition. Walter de Gruyter, 2003, ISBN 3-11-017351-4 , p. 548.
5. ↑ Reinhold Stephan: On the history of the tobacco trade in antiquity and the Middle Ages and the development of the Russian-Asian region from 16.-18. Century. Inaugural dissertation. University of Cologne, 1940. Table of contents . Primary source Johann Falke: The history of German trade. Volume I, Hannover 1859, p. 179; also Theodor Hirsch: Danzig's trade and industrial history. Leipzig 1858, p. 166 and p. 260.
6. ↑ Thomas Stöllner : The prehistoric salt mining on Dürrnberg near Hallein II. VML-Verlag, 2002. Exhibited in the Hallstatt Museum
7. ↑ Alexander Tuma: Pelz-Lexikon. Fur and rough goods. XXI. Volume, Verlag Alexander Tuma, Vienna 1951. Search word Würger
8. ^ Gotthilf Kleemann: On the history of the furrier trade in Württemberg . In: History of the furrier trade in Württemberg . Furrier guild of the Chamber of Crafts districts Stuttgart and Heilbronn a. N. (Eds.), Spring 1967, pp. 36-37.
9. ^ R. Turner Wilcox: The Mode in Furs. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York / London 1951, p. 121 (English)
10. ↑ Paul Larisch , Josef Schmid: The furrier craft. 1st year No. 1 + 2, October / November 1902, self-published, Paris, p. 4.
11. ^ Jean Heinrich Heiderich: The Leipziger Kürschnergewerbe . Inaugural dissertation at the philosophical faculty of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität zu Heidelberg, Heidelberg, 1897, p. 101.
12. ^ R. Turner Wilcox: The Mode in Furs . Charles Scribner Son's, New York and London, 1951, p. 158 (English).
13. ↑ Without a statement by the author: Manufacturing processes for mink coats are 50% cheaper! In: The fur industry. Issue 5, May 1951, p. 22. Primary source: Daily Telegraph and Morning Post.
14. ↑ M. Pastuschenko: The international smoking market : From a magazine (copy of the HWWA Institute for Economic Research, Hamburg.), 1970, pp 36-40. Primary source: Foreign trade , Moscow September 1970.
15. ↑ Editor: Mink clothing - the hit for over ten years. In: Pelz International. Issue 4, Rhenania-Fachverlag, Koblenz, April 1984, p. 34.
16. ↑ Pelze , Steinbock-Verlag, Hanover 1973, pp. 203-207.
17. ↑ Anna Muncchi: The man in the fur coat. Zanfi Editori, Modena 1988, ISBN 88-85168-18-3 , pp. 79, 95, 90, 106, 114.
18. ^ Fritz Schmidt : Memories of Pushkino, the I. Moscow Zoo Farm. In: The fur trade. Vol. XVII / new series 1966 No. 2, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin et al., P. 68.
19. ↑ Emil Brass : From the realm of fur. Publishing house of the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1911, pp. 503–506.
20. ↑ ^{a b c} Heinrich Dathe, Paul Schöps and others: Pelztieratlas. VEB Gustav Fischer Verlag, Jena 1986, p. 167.
21. ↑ Unspecified by the author: 18,000 wild mink caught in Sweden. In: The fur industry. Issue 5, May 1961, p. 30.
22. ↑ ^{a b c} Arthur Samet (Ed.): Pictoral Encyclopedia of Furs. New York, p. 417 (English)
23. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Hermann Wensky: Der Wildnerz. In: All about fur. October 1958, pp. 22-24.
24. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Fur Commission USA: http://old.furcommission.com/farming/colors.htm ( Memento of May 30, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) (English) accessed April 5, 2012.
25. ^ AR Harding: Fur Buyers' Guide. Hardung Publisher, Inc., Columbus, Ohio 1915, pp. 183-185.
26. ^ "RG": ULTRA mink sold for the first time . In: Die Pelzwirtschaft No. 1, Berlin, February 14, 1987, p. 60.
27. ↑ Paul Schöps, H. Brauckhoff, K. Häse, Richard König , W. Straube-Daiber: The durability coefficients of fur skins. In: The fur trade. Volume XV, New Series, 1964, No. 2, Hermelin Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig / Vienna, pp. 56–58.
28. ↑ George R. Cripps: About Furs. Liverpool 1913, p. 69 (English) ( table of contents ).
29. ↑ Paul Schöps, Kurt Häse: The fineness of the hair - the fineness classes. In: The fur trade. Vol. VI / new series, 1955 No. 2, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Leipzig / Berlin / Frankfurt am Main, pp. 39–40.
30. ^ Information from Leonhard Hofstetter, Rötz, November 2010.
31. ↑ Peter Maas: Sea Mink. (No longer available online.) In: The Extinction Website. 2007, archived from the original on December 24, 2007 ; accessed on October 14, 2007 (English). 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.  
32. ^ ^{A b} David Day: The Encyclopedia of Vanished Species . Universal Books Ltd, London 1981, ISBN 0-947889-30-2 , pp. 220 (English).
33. ↑ Without an author: The first cultivated mink coat in Europe - from a German farm. In: The German fur breeder. No. 5, Munich 1931, p. 128.
34. ↑ Sable-like mink. In: The fur trade. Hermelin-Verlag, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig / Vienna 1958 No. 5, p. 230.
35. ↑ Horst Zimmermann: Sami mink. In: The fur trade. Hermelin-Verlag, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig / Vienna, Volume XII - New Series, 1961 No. 6, pp. 256-258.
36. ↑ Creighton Cavendish: Kojah, the new American fur phenomenon. In: The fur industry. December 1968, p. 64.
37. ↑ Editor: The Year Review . In: American Fur Breeder November 1969, p. 10. Quotation: “The Kojah sale, undergirded of promotional funds, was held Feb. 26 [1969] at Hudson's Bay Co. in New York City. In all, 6484 high furred pelts were offered. The top bundle [usually 50 heads] went at an all-time, all-color high of $ 2700! A final bid of $ 2750 was reported made, but turned down because only bids in $ 100 increments were being accepted. The successful bidder was George Liebes, vice president and fur merchandise manager of the Nieman-Marcus firm of Texas ".
38. ↑ In: All about fur. Issue 4, Rhenania-Verlag, Koblenz April 1975, p. 178: Sa Belle, a new breed from the USA. ... At the moment the “Sa Belle” is mainly available in the colors: Standard and Demi Buff. The new mink is marketed exclusively by Liebergall, New York, and in Europe by Rosenberg and Lenhart.
39. ↑ The world production of mink fur. In: The fur trade. Hermelin Verlag, Volume XX - New Series, 1970, No. 5, pp. 29–31.
40. ^ ^{A b} Arthur C. Prentice: A Candid View of the Fur Industry. Clay Publishing Company, Bewdly, Ontario, pp. 144-182 (English)
41. ^ ^{A b} Dieter Wieland: Organization of the tobacco market. CB-Verlag Carl Boldt, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main, pp. 106, 126.
42. ↑ ^{a b c} Horst Zimmermann: Basics of mutation marijuana breeding. In: The fur trade. Volume X New Series, 1959 No. 4, pp. 147–153.
43. ^ ^{A b} Fritz Schmidt : Mutations in mink breeding. In: The fur trade. Supplement to the magazine “Hermelin”, 1951 issue 3, Hermelin-Verlag, Berlin / Leipzig, pp. 16–22.
44. ↑ Latest News from Around the World - The first sapphire and mink coat sold for $ 16,000 . In: Rund um den Pelz No. 7, 1951, Fulde-Verlag, Cologne, p. 15.
45. ↑ "Violet" - a new EMBA mink mutation. In: The fur trade. Volume IX / New Series, 1958 No. 5, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin et al., P. 231.
46. ↑ www.textilwirtschaft.de, November 24, 2004. Last accessed December 7, 2010
47. ^ Editing, based on American sources : The mutation cultivation in the USA. In: The fur trade. Vol. XIII / New series No. 3, Hermelin-Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin et al. 1962, pp. 117–119.
48. ↑ Pearl mink as a novelty for next season. In Sweden people are eagerly awaiting the offer of 70-80 pearl ores from Lövdalen's pel farm announced for the coming fur season. In: Der Rauchwarenmarkt No. 21/22, May 22, 1942, p. 7.
49. ↑ Editor: Sweden's pearl mink breeders have passed away . In: Der Rauchwarenmarkt No. 35/36 u. 37/38, Leipzig, September 17, 1943 (" Freiherr Carl Rappe , one of Sweden's most famous fur breeders and specialist in breeding mink mutations").
50. ↑ Institute of Cytology and Genetics, Novosibirsk: genotypic Collection of Minks . Russian breeding result, quote: "Produced at the Institute of Cytology and Genetics: Cherny khrustal". (English) Retrieved May 30, 2012.
51. ↑ [1] (Siberian scientists have bred out colored "Black Crystal" minks) (Russian). Retrieved May 30, 2012.
52. ↑ Krista Siebel Analysis of genetic variants of loci for coat color and their relationships to color phenotype and quantitative performance characteristics in pigs Dissertation, quote: “In the case of mink, two new color phenotypes (“ black crystal ”and“ silvery ”) emerged in the course of the selection for tameness. “(TRAPEZOV, 1997 a, b).
53. ↑ CR Partik; Lantier, Que: Canadian breeders' reflections on the mink fur. In: The German fur breeder. 12th year, issue 17/18, Munich 1./15. September 1937, pp. 354-355.
54. ^ Elisabeth Thiele: Elisabeth Thiele was in Denmark. In: All about fur. No. 4, April 1966, Rhenania Verlag Koblenz, p. 45.
55. ↑ Michael Abilon: AAA - The New Black. In: News - Kopenhagen Fur. Copenhagen, February 2014, p. 6 (English)
56. ^ Winckelmann Sales Report, Copenhagen. January 30, 1982, Winckelmann Verlag, Frankfurt am Main, p. 16.
57. ↑ Jury Fränkel's Rauchwaren Handbuch p. 36
58. ^ Andreé Simon: Adventures in Wild Mink Ranching: Thirty Years in Developing a New Strain . York, April 4, 1987. G. & C. Franke collection.
59. ↑ www.nafa.ca Ranch Mink . Last accessed on November 5, 2017.
60. ↑ Copenhagen Fur's labeling scheme
61. ↑ Size - Saga Furs fur sizes, accessed November 27, 2010
62. ^ Advertisement of the company, Annings for short : More and more and more . In: Die Pelzwirtschaft No. 1, January 1971, p. 5.
63. ↑ A. Ginzel: Reinforcing. In: Pelz International. Issue 1, Rhenania-Fachverlag, Koblenz January 1982, p. 24.
64. ↑ UH Dienstmann: The Mink Refinement. and W. Sch .: Report from the USA. Mink pelts remain in the foreground. A new finishing process is controversial. In the fur industry. Issue 11, November 1966, pp. 22-28 (Viewpoints on the designation of reinforced skins as natural-colored. American breeders raised concerns.).
65. ^ Ing. Ginzel: 60 years of tobacco product refinement. In: The fur industry. Verlag die Pelzwirtschaft, Berlin / Frankfurt am Main, January 1, 1965, p. 46.
66. ↑ Under Eight Monarchs - 1823-1953. CW Martin & Sons, London 1953, English
67. ↑ Shorn mink. In: The fur industry. Issue 10, October 1961, p. 38.
68. ↑ Heinrich Hanicke: Handbook for furrier. Published by Alexander Duncker, Leipzig, 1895, p. 71.
69. ↑ 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 following measurements 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.
70. ↑ Dr. Johann Georg Krünitz's economic-technological encyclopedia, part seven and fifty. Berlin 1792, p. 17.
71. ^ Heinrich Lomer: The smoke goods trade. Self-published, Leipzig 1864, p. 62.
72. ↑ Paul Cubäus: The whole of Skinning. A. Hartleben's Verlag, Leipzig 1891, p. 341.
73. ↑ Paul Schöps, Alfred Erler, Richard Gloeck , Kurt Häse, Fritz Schmidt : Fellwerk vom Nerz. In: The fur trade. Volume X / New Series, 1959 Issue 1, Hermelin-Verlag Paul Schöps, pp. 3–14.
74. ↑ In: Pelzmarkt Newsletter . German fur association V., Frankfurt am Main March 11, 2011, p. 10.
75. ^ Marie Louise Steinbauer, Rudolf Kinzel: Pelz. Steinbock Verlag, 1973, pp. 224-225.
76. ↑ Without the author's name: IFF - fur still in demand . In: Pelzmarkt Newsletter , July 17, 2014, Deutscher Pelzverband e. V., Frankfurt am Main, p. 4. Primary source: Internationaler Felzverband IFF.
77. ^ Emil Brass: From the kingdom of fur (1911) From the kingdom of fur. Volume I: History of the tobacco trade. Volume II: Natural History of Fur Animals (1911) .
78. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa} Ulf D. Wenzel: Das Furztierbuch. Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Cologne 1990, pp. 26-29.
79. ^ Friedrich Malm, August Dietzsch: The art of the furrier. Fachbuchverlag Leipzig 1951, p. 50.
80. ↑ Silver-blue platinum ore. In: The tobacco market. No. 2, Leipzig February 1944, p. 7.
81. ↑ Ulf D. Wenzel: Noble fur animals . VEB Deutscher Landwirtschaftsverlag Berlin, p. 29.
82. ↑ After Wenceslaus. There, however, incorrect (presented thousand digits), corrected according to the chronicle of the city of Plau
83. ↑ Fritz Schmidt : The German Farmnerz. In: All about fur. October 1958, pp. 25-26.
84. ↑ Matti Ranne In: Vara pälsdjur. 1956, pp. 419-420. In the translation by Horst Zimmermann, in “Brühl” May / June 1967, Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, p. 35.
85. ↑ SAD: Record prices for black mink. In: Brühl. 7th year, September / October 1966, VEB Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, p. 4.
86. ↑ Signed "W.": Cultivated ores for China . Without an author's statement: The Chinese are now also breeding minks in southern zones . In Die Pelzwirtschaft issue 1, CB-Verlag Carl Boldt, Berlin January 31, 1973, p. 12.
87. ↑ Gisela Unrein: 30 years of the specialist magazine "Brühl". In: Brühl September / October 1990, Fachbuchverlag Leipzig, p. 35.
88. ↑ Alfons Knaup private archive, former director of the Appelburg fur farm in Plau am See.
89. ↑ signed VS .: Fur farming and animal ecology in the Soviet Union. In: The fur industry. Issue 11–12 / 1985, CB-Verlag Carl Boldt, Berlin, p. 16.
90. ↑ Furcommission.com (until 2009 after collection by Oslo Fur Auction, 2010 by Finnish Fur Sales and Copenhagen Fur) ( Memento from January 3, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) (English), last accessed March 16, 2013.
91. ↑ www.furcommission.com/farming/production (English) last accessed March 15, 2013.
92. ↑ Rising world production of fur skins. In: Pelzmarkt newsletter. 3rd / 13th March 2013, Deutscher Pelzverband, Frankfurt am Main, p. 5 (primary source EFBA, January 2013)
93. ↑ www.landbrugsavisen.dk: Minkproduktion fordoblet på 10 år ( Memento of the original dated December 8, 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. (Danish). Last accessed March 11, 2013. 
94. ↑ R. Anistoroaei, MN Markakis, K. Vissenberg, K. Christensen: Exclusion of candidate genes for coat color phenotypes of the American mink (Neovison vison). In: Animal genetics. Volume 43, Number 6, December 2012, ISSN  1365-2052 , pp. 813-816, doi: 10.1111 / j.1365-2052.2012.02339.x , PMID 22497269 .
95. ↑ Hans Løgstup Paulsen: Mink skins have reached the moon. In: News. Copenhagen Fur, Copenhagen April 2013, p. 15 + attached Preliminary Sales Program April 2013. (English)
96. ↑ Copenhagen Fur: Moondust. In: fur market. May 2013, Deutscher Pelzverband e. V., Frankfurt am Main, p. 3.
97. ↑ Editor: Production figures 2015 . In: Pelzmarkt, Newsletter of the German Fur Association , July 2016, p. 3.