Burberrys Coat (Otter fur) 1970's/1980's?

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daniel hopcroft

Registered Guest
This coat has been in the back of my wardrobe for 18 years (since my grandad passed away). I have never worn it as is too small for me.
I have always known it as his best coat, that he wore when he was 'The Mayor of Hackney' in the 80's.
I have only just noticed the Burberrys labels.
Can anyone give me any information on what type of coat it is, style, date, Value, etc...
Are there special places to sell something like this?
I know nothing about this field, so would really appreciate any information offered.
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wow! in the midwest we refer to vintage coats with wide fur collars and double breasted fronts like yours as Storm Coats, and yours is FABULOUS!!!

you might want to check if there are inside pockets? sometimes there are little tags with dates on them, sometimes not.

Typically, we associate storm coats as 1940s, but the 1970s were heavily influenced by the 40s...but let's see what others have to say.

oh, we don't do valuations here, but you may want to search for finished values of a vintage Burberry men's winter coat with fur collar to get an idea of value. we sold a 194os men's winter trench coat (no fur) a couple years ago for around $300-400, but yours is Burberry, so you may have potential for (much?) more. condition is key!!

what a great coat!
 
The Vintage Merchant said:
wow! in the midwest we refer to vintage coats with wide fur collars and double breasted fronts like yours as Storm Coats, and yours is FABULOUS!!!

you might want to check if there are inside pockets? sometimes there are little tags with dates on them, sometimes not.

Typically, we associate storm coats as 1940s, but the 1970s were heavily influenced by the 40s...but let's see what others have to say.

oh, we don't do valuations here, but you may want to search for finished values of a vintage Burberry men's winter coat with fur collar to get an idea of value. we sold a 194os men's winter trench coat (no fur) a couple years ago for around $300-400, but yours is Burberry, so you may have potential for (much?) more. condition is key!!

what a great coat!
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Thank you so much, that is exactly the kind of information I was hoping for. Unfortunately my Grandfather is no longer around for me to ask.
Condition is perfect, I believe it was only worn for occasional formal mayoral duties.
 
The Queen's warrant was granted in 1955, so it must be after that. I can't find a date for the Queen Mother's warrant - or any reference to it at all. Perhaps it was granted at the same time.

However they got a warrant from The Prince of Wales in either 1989 or 1990. This isn't shown, so it must be before that (which I guess you already knew!).

Anyway, rules out 1940s.
 
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A great find!
Please also consider that otter fur might be problematic if you plan to sell the coat - from what I see, a lot of otter species (or all?) are protected and listed on CITES appendices I or II, so you'd have to check the regulations are where you are located.
 
Retro Ruth said:
The Queen's warrant was granted in 1955, so it must be after that. I can't find a date for the Queen Mother's warrant - or any reference to it at all. Perhaps it was granted at the same time.

However they got a warrant from The Prince of Wales in either 1989 or 1990. This isn't shown, so it must be before that (which I guess you already knew!).

Anyway, rules out 1940s.
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Thanks for sharing your knowledge.
 
Midge said:
A great find!
Please also consider that otter fur might be problematic if you plan to sell the coat - from what I see, a lot of otter species (or all?) are protected and listed on CITES appendices I or II, so you'd have to check the regulations are where you are located.
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I had not even considered that issue, as I'm not sure what uk rules are on this.
Great advice though, thanks.
 
Retro Ruth said:
PS: agree with checking ALL the pockets, as if this was a custom make, there might be a label somewhere.
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You were right! This label in the front pocket but no info on it.
Maybe because it was all on the hang tag?
Does "Burberrys London" help with dating, as I know the company changed name?
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Too bad!

The company name change happened ca. 1998, so according to what we've found out so far, before your coat. In our Label Resource you can see examples of labels throug the decades: https://vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource/burberrys/. The basic label / logo didn't change mucht for a long time. I couldn't find anything by searching by style name - Sandhurst - but it might be worth a try to contact Burberry and ask if they could say when that style was made?
 
daniel hopcroft said:
I really hope otter is the colour.
Do any of you know when fur became illegal? was it pre 1980's
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Currently only certain furs have selling restrictions in the U.K. as far as I know, so it’s worth trying to identify for sure what yours is. There is a great fur resource here to use which should help.

Love that your grandad was mayor of Hackney!
 
Hattysattic said:
Currently only certain furs have selling restrictions in the U.K. as far as I know, so it’s worth trying to identify for sure what yours is. There is a great fur resource here to use which should help.

Love that your grandad was mayor of Hackney!
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Thanks, I have always been very proud of him!

I have been looking through the resources pages which has really opened my eyes, to how little I know about the subject.
However I assume I would have t0 have this fur verified before I could legally sell it on Ebay for example?

Any fur specialists out there? Preferably human!
 
Hattysattic said:
I’m wondering if ‘otter’ is the colour, as looks a little more like beaver lamb/ shearling collar? But agreed fur resource is a great place to check!
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daniel hopcroft said:
I really hope otter is the colour.
Do any of you know when fur became illegal? was it pre 1980's
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I thought the same, that otter might be the colour, because of the legalities of endangered species.

However if made before 1975 when CITES came into force, it would have been legal to use otter fur back then. But if it is otter, you may not be able to sell it legally now.
 
I'm no fur expert, it could be sheep/mouton, but it could be otter. Hard to tell from a photo. I believe otter fur would be very soft and dense.

Burberry certainly used to use real fur collars, I don't know about otter in particular.

The rules are complicated, and depend partly on which exact species of otter it is, which is going to be hard to know. Likelihood is you can only sell by getting an Article 10 certificate from Defra, on the grounds that it predates CITES, but you'd probably need to provide some documentation of it's age to get that.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/endangered-species-application-for-commercial-use
 
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I agree, from the photos it could also be mouton - but then I have very little knowledge of fur, and certainly never knowingly had otter fur in my hands. I guess a good furrier should be able to say if it's otter or mouton or whatever. However, I have no idea if they could be more specific as to what type of otter. No idea how big the differences are there.
 
Retro Ruth said:
I thought the same, that otter might be the colour, because of the legalities of endangered species.

However if made before 1975 when CITES came into force, it would have been legal to use Otter fur back then. But if it is otter, you may not be able to sell it legally now.
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My Grandfather was Mayor around 1986. So I would think the coat was purchased around that time.
Do we know the year when Burberrys stopped using endangered furs? or is it all a bit vague?
 
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