Help Identifying Mink/Marten/Sable Fur?

[kittysfish]

Hello all,

This is an identification question, not as much for a specific piece as to understand some principles to help me figure out a number of pieces.
My uncle had multiple small and some larger pieces that appear to be either mink or sable/marten. Some have tails, feet and faces, some just the tails & fur, and some only fur. I have tried looking across the internet to understand what a live mink looks like as compared to a live marten or sable, and especially on mink the tails appeared to be more slender, sleek and fuzzy, whereas the sable tails appeared more voluminous, long-haired & fluffy, like on the VFG Sable resource page (kind of like the difference between a short-haired vs long-haired cat's tail). But on ebay, other auction sites, etc, I keep finding pelts identified as mink (even on their original tags) that have larger, fluffier tails with longer hair that I would have thought were sable. So these are my questions:

1. Can anyone direct me to a resource that clearly compares the differences between the furs of mink, marten, & sable to help with identification? (Tails, other markings [like sable - light neck "bandana"; mink - often small white chin patch], distinguishing features of fur, etc.) Personal tips for telling apart mink and sable/marten from pics are gladly accepted too!

2. I have read that farmed mink have thicker coats than wild mink, which might be part of what can make them look closer to sable? Again, whether my keywords or my search engine was the limiter, I didn't turn up satisfactory resources comparing farmed vs wild. Any resources demonstrating the pelt differences?

I have been able to hold and feel some examples of very soft sable/marten and mink, and think I could judge better by feel (mink fur more directional; sable fur comfortable being brushed in all directions, etc), but am largely having to rely on visual cues for identification via pics at a distance right now. I was hoping to not weigh everyone here down by posting every single piece, & so wanted to learn how to figure this out.

I am including 4 sets of items simply as examples to illustrate what I'm trying to figure out. I am happy to post other better pics of them if desired, so please don't stress about identifying them in these small pictures. They're just examples.

I am sorry for the long "book" explaining this. :( Thank you for the patience of all who get through it!

Hollie

 

[furwise]

Hi Hollie,

Sorry it took so long to receive a reply. I'm not sure if you checked out our fur resource. If not you can find that here. We share information and photos of many different fur types.

Learning how to identify fur garments once they are made is a bit different than identifying them when they are alive.
You need to learn about the sizes of animal pelts, hides, or skins once they crafted, the density of the fur, the texture, coloration, and still know the fur type when dyed, pieced, whole, natural length, sheared, and all the ways fur garments look after being constructed.
We need to update our marten pics to include a photo of the lighter colored patch of fur that appears under the marten's chin and neck area. You can read more about marten here if you have not already.
Female mink pelts are smaller and lighter in weight than male mink pelts, and are said to have more sheen. One would not know mink was female with certainty unless they confirmed the characteristics mentioned in combination with looking at the hind or skin side of the pelts. Farmed mink is said to be bred better, fed better, and be better in quality and appearance. More about mink can be seen here.
The first photo of collage photo you posted shows Russian sable.
I can't tell what the first 3 pelt scarf wrap fur is in the second photo. The other 3 pelts scarf to the right in that same photo looks like Canadian sable. Both have some guard hair wear or breakage at the ends of the fur.
The next two photos show a sable fur belt, a detachable sable fur collar, and a pastel mink fur collar.
The next photo shows a Russian sable fur wrap, and the last shows a label.

Here's a photo of a portion of a stone marten fur garment that I sold previously that shows the white patches that appear under it's chin along the neck area.

 

[kittysfish]

Yet again, thank you for your time, effort, & information ! I had been looking forward to your reply.

Yes, I had read through all the pages I could find on mink/sable/marten (& more!) on VFG when starting my research, and was glad for the overview! But that also fostered part of my eventual confusion re: possibility of judging sable/marten vs mink based on their tails - the tails on the critters on the marten & sable pages looked so much fluffier (longer hairs, greater volume) than the slender, fuzzy mink tails (covered with shorter hairs) that I had seen elsewhere (clothing, pelts, etc), that it made me wonder if the tails on clothing items with whole pelts could be enough to ID the fur family (sable/marten vs mink).
That's partly where the farmed vs wild mink question arose, trying to understand if the better fur & greater size possibly made farmed mink look more like sable (tails esp), or if the listings for "mink" with super-fluffy tails on ebay etc were misguided identifications.

Well. Lord willing, further reply later when not so tired.

 

[furwise]

Sometimes mink fur coats and sable fur coats are made from tails. When they are you can see the little curved pattern of the tails throughout, and sometimes the tails are still attached to the bottom of the pelts and hang. Either way, you can see and feel the difference in length, density, coloration, and texture. Otherwise, the tails are usually cut off, and would not be a good identifier.
Here's are some images of some brown mink tails and then an image of some sable tails. Please note these are not my photos and are being shown for reference only.