Civet cat fur

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Left African civet, right Indian civet

Civet cat skins are a commodity in the tobacco industry to a comparatively small extent . However, the civet has become popular thanks to the civet , which is once more important for trade , a raw material for perfume production obtained from the cat's glands , which has now been largely replaced by synthetic substances.

In the fur industry they are best known for the fact that the furrier often wrongly called them servals or serval cats , although they have nothing in common with this real cat, apart from a superficial resemblance of the coat pattern. Other incorrect names are Civetcat or Zivetkatze; In the movement of goods, this is generally understood to mean the fur of the stain or lyric barn . Of the other species belonging to the crawling cats , only the skins of the gorse cats for fur purposes are on the market.

Coat description

The animal looks almost like a hybrid of a marten and a cat. The head is broad and stocky, the muzzle short, the ears are small, and the tail is relatively short. The fur is more pleasing, it is dense, loose and impresses with its pretty drawing with numerous round and angular, concise and blurred black-brown spots, dots and wavy cross-lines on a gray-brown or yellowish-brown base color. The bright ringing of the tail and the framing of the yellowish-brown head by a black-rimmed white neck strip enhance the lively effect. A special feature is the deep black stripe on the back, which can be erected in the animal, and extends to the tail. A feature that hardly any other fur animal can be found so perfectly pronounced.

Depending on the geographical subspecies, the color, markings and height of the individual origins are more or less different.

In a division of the fur types into the hair fineness classes silky, fine, medium-fine, coarse and hard, the civet cat hair is classified as medium-fine.

  • Africa civet
The fur of the African civet , also known as civette , is 70 to 95 centimeters long, and the tail is 30 to 50 centimeters long. The legs are of medium length; the back mane is black. The basic color is ash-gray, sometimes yellowish with numerous round and angular black-brown spots, which are strung together one after the other, now lengthways, now crossways; Clearly cross-stripes on the back legs (individually very variable). The thick-haired tail has 6 to 7 black rings and a black-brown tip, the curling of the tail is less clear than that of Chinese skins. On both sides of the neck there is an oblong, square spot, which is bordered above and below by a black-brown stripe or separated into two equal parts. The nose is black and the tip of the snout is white and light brown in the middle in front of the eyes. This is followed by yellowish-brown areas in the forehead and ear region, which become lighter towards the neck. A black-brown stain runs under each eye across the cheeks to the throat. There are many variations in the coloration, and blackers are also known. The coat is thick and loose, but a little coarse. The outer hair is one third to one sixth longer than the wool hair. The African civet is found south of the Sahara , excluding the southern tip of Africa. African civets are widespread and are not an endangered species.
  • India civet
  • The fur of the well Zibete called Indian civet is about 10 centimeters longer than that of their African relatives; it is dark yellow-gray in color with dark red-brown spots, some of which result in stripes. Their home is in the Middle East , through Burma to southern China , Indochina and Malaysia .
  • Little Spotted Civet Cat or Tagalunga
This smaller species, the Indian civet cat , lives in large parts of South and Southeast Asia , its original range extends from India and Sri Lanka and southern China to the Indonesian islands of Sumatra , Java and Bali . The species was naturalized on Socotra , the Comoros , Madagascar and several Southeast Asian islands, among others . It also differs from the Asiatic civet species by the lack of a mane on the back and a more pointed snout. The snout and legs are completely black, the tail is gray-black ringed. The widespread small spot civet cat is not one of the endangered species.
  • Great Spotted Civet Cat
The big-spot civet is found in large parts of Southeast Asia, in Burma and India as far as the Malay Peninsula and the similar subspecies Malabar civet in southern India. The big-spot civet fur usually has larger and more visible spots than that of the other species. The black hair along the back line is about 6 inches long. The furs reach a head body length of 72 to 85 centimeters and a tail length of 30 to 37 centimeters. With the exception of China, the great spot civet is protected in most countries within its range.

History, trade

At the beginning of the 20th century, the Chinese civet skins were mostly made into car blankets, dyed, made into fur sleeves and stoles, the small-spot civet in the 1930s also as a substitute for cheap raccoon skins ("scales"). For a while, civet cat skins were in great demand by tail twists . These cut the previously skunk colored skins into narrow strips and made real-looking fur tails from them, which were used as a replacement for the expensive fox tails. Colored, they were also used to a limited extent as fox imitations. In 1950 it was mentioned in the USA that the fur was refined in a silver fox color , whereby the under hair in particular was re-dyed and the middle of the fur and the belly side were darkened, but the dot markings remained recognizable. Seven years later, the silver fox color for civet cat skins is also mentioned as a novelty in Germany, the skins were processed into trimmings . In 1937 it was said that it was used for ready-made clothing "extremely rare".

In 1928, however, an Austrian furrier noticed that the civet cat fur, which used to be used almost exclusively for fodder purposes, would now be “a wonderful coat material”, and that the fur came out in the thousands.

African civet skins were almost never processed because of their hard hair, while the more pleasing-looking southern Chinese skins were traded more often.

Wholesalers only sorted the skins according to quality. Soft, well-haired skins came in class I, bristly and lightly haired skins in class II or III; Skins with little or no hairiness were undesirable and classified as low grades. They mainly came to the European market or went to the Far East.

In 1988 the incidence of civet pelts was described as low, averaging a few 10,000 per year. There are no more civet cat skins available on the Western European market.

processing

Small civet fur rug (graphic, 1910)

The skins are delivered open, not peeled off round.

The durability coefficient for the civet fur is given as 60 to 70 percent.

Civet cat skins were mostly made into fur blankets and rugs . Sewn with the heads together, they make a pretty drawing. Occasionally they were also made into fur necklaces , scarves in the shape of animals. Some of the skins were prefabricated into semi-finished fur products , boards and bodies , especially in China . These semi-finished products, also plucked (without guard hair), came into the trade from China (plucked civet catskin plates).

The production of jackets and coats by the furrier corresponds to the processing of wild cat fur .

Numbers and facts

  • 1912–1913 : In 1912 , 37,102 civet skins were auctioned in London, the next year it was 54,454.
  • 1914 , quote: “ Some furriers consider civet to be the most reliable antidote for moths, while other fur artists think that it attracts fur pests. One like the other - views untenable before the judgment seat of science. "( H. Werner )
  • In 1925 the tobacco merchant Emil Brass stated that the export of civet cat skins from China was around 30,000 to 50,000 pieces per year, the consumption in the country itself for blankets and other items was estimated at 10,000 to 20,000, of which several thousand were exported annually. Each blanket consisted of 3 to 6 skins. The value per fur was 6 to 10 marks (1911 = 2 to 3 marks). About 10,000 pieces of the small Indian civet were sold in Shanghai every year, despite the low price of around 80 pfennigs each, they were hardly in demand in Europe. The value of an African civet fur was roughly half that of a Chinese one.
  • In 1928 , when civet skins came onto the market in "thousands", a coat cost between 8 and 10 Austrian shillings (in the coat description, however, no distinction is made between the gorse cat and the civet cat).
  • In 1931 the Leipzig tobacco merchant Aladar Kölner reported that the Chinese civet cat ("civet cat") was widespread throughout the Yangtze valley . At that time, 60,000 to 70,000 skins were exported annually.

See also

Commons : Civet Pelts  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files
Commons : Civet Skin Apparel  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

annotation

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

supporting documents

  1. ↑ a b c d Fritz Schmidt : The book of the fur animals and fur . FC Mayer, Munich 1970, p.  140-143 .
  2. ↑ 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 (Note: fine (partly silky); medium-fine (partly fine); coarse (medium-fine to coarse)).
  3. ↑ K. Toldt, Innsbruck: Structure and natural coloring of the hair coat of wild mammals. Publisher German Society for Small Animal and Fur Breeding, Leipzig 1935, p. 73.
  4. ↑ Heinrich Dathe , Paul Schöps, with the collaboration of 11 specialists: Pelztieratlas. VEB Gustav Fischer Verlag Jena, 1986, pp. 190–191.
  5. ↑ Civettictis civetta in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2012. Posted by: Ray, J., Gaubert, P. & Hoffmann, M., 2008. Accessed October 29, 2012th
  6. ↑ a b c d e Christian Franke, Johanna Kroll: Jury Fränkel's Rauchwaren-Handbuch 1988/89 . 10th revised and supplemented new edition. Rifra-Verlag, Murrhardt 1989, p. 120-121 .
  7. ↑ Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
  8. ↑ a b Viverra megaspila in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2011. Posted by: Duckworth, JW, Timmins, RJ, Olsson, A., Roberton, S., Kanchanasaka, B., Than Zaw, Jennings, A. & Veron , G., 2008. Retrieved January 6, 2012.
  9. ↑ a b Aladar Kölner: Chinese, Manchurian and Japanese fur skins. In: Rauchwarenkunde - Eleven lectures from the goods science of the fur trade. Verlag der Rauchwarenmarkt, Leipzig 1931, pp. 119–112.
  10. ^ A b Emil Brass : From the realm of fur . 1st edition. Publishing house of the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1911, p.  575-578 .
  11. ↑ Arthur Samet: Pictorial Encyclopedia of Furs . Arthur Samet (Book Division), New York 1950, p. 344. (English)
  12. ↑ a b Friedrich Lorenz: Rauchwareenkunde . 4th edition. People and Knowledge, Berlin 1958, p. 62 .
  13. ↑ Friedrich Kramer: From fur animals to fur . 1st edition. Arthur Heber & Co, Berlin 1937, p. 41 .
  14. ↑ a b Alexander Tuma jun .: The furrier's practice . Julius Springer, Vienna 1928, p. 320 .
  15. ↑ Max Bachrach: Fur. A Practical Treatise. Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York 1936. pp. 222-224. (English).
  16. ↑ Paul Schöps; H. Brauckhoff, Stuttgart; K. Häse, Leipzig, Richard König , Frankfurt / Main; W. Straube-Daiber, Stuttgart: The durability coefficients of fur skins . In: Das Pelzgewerbe , Volume XV, New Series, 1964, No. 2, Hermelin Verlag Dr. Paul Schöps, Berlin, Frankfurt / Main, Leipzig, Vienna, pp. 56–58.
  17. ^ A b H. Werner: The art of furrier. Publishing house Bernh. Friedr. Voigt, Leipzig 1914, p. 110.
  18. ↑ Emil Brass : From the realm of fur . 2nd improved edition. Publishing house of the "Neue Pelzwaren-Zeitung and Kürschner-Zeitung", Berlin 1925, p.  679-683 .