dating mink felt fur piece w/glass eyes

cmpollack

cmpollack

VFG Member
When were scarf-like fur pieces made out of whole mink pelts (attached head to tail like the Worm Ouroborus) worn?

I picked this one up at an estate sale this summer and have never really seen a period ad or mag picture that would help me date it accurately... (I'm thinking late 40s/early 50s, based on absolutely no evidence; how ballpark is that?)

This one has the usual glass eyes, feet and tails, etc, and has a black crochet-covered clip underneath one head as well as (about 4" from either end) a pair of tortoise plastic chains with little crocheted balls. (Haven't quite figured out their function...)

Opinions, please? And thanks in advance!

pelt6.jpg

pelt8.jpg
 
These pelt scarves can be a bit tricky to date although yours looks to be in good condition and you may be correct in thinking 1940's/1950's. Your plastic may be celluloid. Mink trapping goes back in time of course but in North America mink farms I believe were in operation during the 1920's and 1930's.

Fur pelt scarves were worn during the Edwardian period. Later in the 1920's and onward it was fashionable to add more pelts which were attached by clips and as you describe chain loop rings and balls. Knotted or crochet loops were common too. Furs were expensive.

Fox tail pelts were popular during the early-mid 1940's sometimes having a rayon crepe backing or lining. I've seen an example of a a five pelt mink scarf from the 1940's.

This is quite a good pictorial reference site;

http://vintagefur.1930s-fashions.co.uk/
 
Carrie, I'd would bet 50s on these (maybe into the very, very early 60s). I "know" nothing about furs, but am basing this mostly on my recollection of my aunts (I had several of them!) wearing these when I was little. Of course, some may have hung on to theirs from the 40s--I think this style was around for a while. (Yours look to be in better condition than one would think for much earlier than the 50s.) They wore them to church a lot (somehow, wearing something that looks that dead to church seems a bit odd to me....) and out to dinner or the theater. I also remember a lot of other women wearing them to church in the late 50s/early 60s. It seems to me they all, and my mom, started wearing "modern" fur stoles and capes by the mid 60s at the latest.
 
Thanks so much for your help, ladies! Think I will go with 50s on this (after free-associating a bit, I'm theorizing a connection between the style of this neck piece and that of those pre-Fidel gator bags with the head and feet...)

Vertugarde--that is an AMAZING site. Many thanks for pointing me to it. So much info and eye candy,, and I know I will be using that resource that presents the Echos de la Mode and Modes de Paris covers by season. (My grasp of 40s winter wear has always been shaky, and having a whole bunch of images together to study was just wonderful!)

Anne--it's funny how invaluable memories like those of your aunts' church- and theater-going style can be in pinning down fashion history! (And I agree, how odd that the wearing of taxiderm-ized pelts around the neck was de rigeur for Sunday worship for a while...)
 
My mom gave me one of those that belonged to my grandmother. Her's had four pelts but basically the same. The one thing my mom remembered about it was that her mother had worn it at her wedding in 1950. I think your dating's probably pretty close.
 
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